Brandon Risner: Aaron Davis Killing, Competency, and Life Sentence

Brandon Risner is a Georgia man who murdered his childhood best friend, 21-year-old Aaron William Davis, in November 2022, stabbing him 40 times as he slept and then attempting to dismember and bury the body. Risner, who worked as a haunted house scare actor in Canton, Georgia, pleaded guilty in 2024 to all 12 charges against him, including malice murder, and Floyd County Superior Court Chief Judge John “Jack” Niedrach sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.¹

The Night Aaron Davis Was Killed

On November 10 or 11, 2022, Davis stopped in Rome, Georgia to stay overnight with Risner on his drive from Cumming to visit his girlfriend in Gadsden, Alabama. Risner’s parents were away, and the two men were alone at the family home on Collinwood Road. They went to a bar that evening, where Risner ordered Davis high-alcohol-content beers. Davis became intoxicated and later fell asleep in bed.²

Risner attacked him there with a knife, inflicting 40 stab wounds to the head, chest, torso, and extremities. Prosecutors said Davis was alive for most of the wounds and had no defensive injuries, indicating he did not anticipate the attack. Blood splatter reached the ceiling of the upstairs bedroom.²

Risner then dragged Davis’s body to a guest bathroom shower and attempted to dismember it, cutting into the abdomen and one arm and removing a portion of the small intestine. He wrapped the body in duct tape, placed it in a suitcase, and loaded the suitcase into the trunk of Davis’s blue Toyota Prius. He drove the car to Heritage Park and tried to submerge it in a creek about two and a half miles from the house. He carried the remains to a wooded area off Tumlin Drive and buried them under six to twelve inches of dirt in a hole left by an uprooted oak. The section of intestine lost during the concealment was never recovered.³¹

Back at the house, Risner bought cleaning supplies and scrubbed a mattress, carpet, and rug. Investigators later pulled more than 20 searches from his phone about cleaning blood from carpet, stain remover, hydrochloric acid, draining a washing machine, and buying duct tape and sheets. Prosecutors also described what they called a “post-murder to do list” saved on the device.²

How He Was Caught

Davis’s family called police when he never arrived in Alabama. At 10:13 a.m. on Saturday, November 12, 2022, Rome officers found his Prius abandoned in a ditch behind a levee at Heritage Park. That location led investigators back toward the Risner house. Officers canvassed the area around Collinwood Road and recovered Davis’s body from the wooded area off Tumlin Drive. Witnesses at the scene identified Risner. He fled when police approached but later turned himself in and was booked into the Floyd County Jail, where he was denied bond.⁴

What Risner Said About Why He Did It

Risner gave investigators several conflicting explanations. The one that drew the most attention at sentencing was his claim that after consuming cannabis edibles he experienced a “prophecy” in which he believed God gave him an ultimatum: kill his best friend or have sex with his stepmother. He said he chose to kill Davis because he deemed it “less self-pleasurable.”³

He also told investigators that drinking and smoking marijuana triggered urges to kill and that he saw Davis’s visit as a “sign of his destiny” because his parents happened to be away. In his own words, he described himself as a “man with a plan” who “stalked my prey,” and said he “became a carnal animal like in a dream and started to feel emotion for the first time as I started killing Aaron.”²

Investigators also recovered violent song lyrics from Risner’s phone, written both before and after the murder. One line read: “He screamed ’til he choked on his own tongue and blood. His scream became a gargle as he swallowed his tongue.”⁵ Floyd County Assistant District Attorney Leah Mayo told the court that whichever version Risner told, every account pointed to premeditation, saying it was “something he had been thinking about since early fall.”³

Mental Health and Competency

Defense attorney Jeffrey Heller requested two mental health evaluations, one to assess criminal responsibility at the time of the killing and one to assess competency to stand trial. Judge Niedrach ordered the evaluations through the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. Risner was found mentally competent to stand trial. The defense then pursued a private psychiatric evaluation but did not seek an insanity defense; at sentencing, counsel acknowledged Risner did not meet the legal criteria for insanity.⁶³

The defense instead used mental health information in mitigation, citing diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder, an unspecified psychotic disorder, and cannabis use disorder, and asking for a 30-year sentence with the possibility of parole. Risner’s parents, Jeremy Risner and Jenny Lee, testified about their son’s history of anxiety, delusions, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.²

Guilty Plea and Life Sentence

Four days before his trial was set to begin, Risner pleaded guilty to all 12 charges against him, including malice murder, two counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, aggravated battery, concealing the death of another, abandonment of a dead body, theft by taking, misdemeanor removal of body parts from the scene of a death, tampering with evidence, and obstruction of an officer.¹

At the sentencing hearing on July 18, 2024, the Davis family delivered impact statements. Aaron’s mother, Sara Davis, told the court she had “cooked and served Brandon thousands of dinners over the years” and that Risner “stabbed us in the hearts.” Aaron’s girlfriend, Charliegirl Schellenger, read a love letter Aaron had written her and said, “I never got to say goodbye.”²

Judge Niedrach imposed life in prison without the possibility of parole. “Both of these young men have been loved throughout their lives,” he said. “I know all of you are in tremendous pain. To have a young son brutally murdered is unfathomable.” He said the sentence “would speak for itself.”⁷

Who Aaron Davis Was

Aaron William Davis was born on December 5, 2000, in Providence, Rhode Island, and grew up in Cumming, Georgia. He graduated from North Forsyth High School, earned Eagle Scout rank, and completed a bachelor’s degree in political science from Brigham Young University–Idaho in July 2022. A member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he had served a mission in Las Vegas West and had recently passed the Georgia teacher certification exam. He planned to become a teacher and was engaged to be married.²⁸

Davis and Risner had been close friends since eighth grade. They attended the same high school and the same Latter-day Saint congregation in Cumming before Risner’s family moved to Rome. Risner had stayed in the Davis home many times. Aaron’s father, Randy Davis, said Risner had been “as much of a son to us as anyone.”⁹

1
Court TV. Scare Actor Accused of Stabbing, Mutilating Best Friend Pleads Guilty
2
East Idaho News. Chilling Details Revealed During Emotional Sentencing for Man Who Mutilated and Killed a Former BYU-Idaho Student
3
Court TV. Scare Actor Sentenced for Savagely Mutilating His Best Friend
4
Northwest Georgia News. Police: Rome Man Stabbed 21-Year-Old BYU Student Multiple Times, Charged With Murder
5
Law & Crime. Man Wrote Disturbing Song Lyrics After Stabbing, Disemboweling Childhood Friend
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104.9 The Rebel. Judge Orders Mental Evaluation for Suspect in East Rome Mutilation Case
7
Northwest Georgia News. Life Sentence for November 2022 Murder
8
JH Williams Funeral Home. Aaron Davis Obituary
9
Deseret News. Recent BYU-Idaho Graduate Stabbed to Death in Georgia; Police Arrest Friend