ATLANTA — A Colorado man has been sentenced to life without parole plus 15 years for the murder of a young man who was walking his dogs in Buckhead in 2023.
David Kinney killed Jayden McKinnon and stole his French bulldog.
Fulton County Prosecutor Adriane Love told Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne that video played a key role, but the real key was witness testimony.
McKinnon died over a dog and greed.
Kinney was already wanted for a murder out of Colorado days earlier when he shot McKinnon and stole his expensive French bulldog named Bonjour, whom he called Bonjee.
McKinnon was walking both his dogs on Aug. 13, 2023, when he was mortally wounded.
“It’s a very tragic case. A young man loses his life trying to protect his animal,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said.
The defendant took a gun that Jayden carried with him while he walked his dogs and he shot Jayden,” Love said.
“He loved them dogs,” McKinnon’s mother Sahr McKinnon said. “He walked them every day, fed them, they slept with them.”
Love said Kinney arrived at the Buckhead apartment complex where the McKinnons lived in a stolen Dodge Charger.
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“The defendant inquired about the cost of the price of the French bulldogs that Jayden was walking. Jayden told him how much each of them cost, but then he was heard on the phone by the person he was speaking to as he walked near the defendant saying no these dogs aren’t for sale,” Love said.
Love said after gunshots were heard, the stolen Charger raced out of the apartment complex but ran over a curb and damaged its oil pan.
She said an Atlanta police officer encountered the car, pulled up behind the disabled Charger on the Buford/Spring Connector, and spotted a gun in the passenger’s hand.
But the car, driven by a friend of Kinney’s, who has not been charged, took off and got away despite a chase though it was later seen on the back of a tow truck having also broken down.
FBI spokesperson Jenna Sellito said on Aug. 17, 2023, days after McKinney’s murder, the FBI obtained a warrant against Kinney for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution involving a murder in Colorado on Aug. 5 of that year. On Aug. 18, 2023, the FBI arrested him here.
“We wanna give praise to the FBI, who was the one who actually captured the defendant,” Willis said.
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