Justin and Amber Hicks: Trial, Verdict, and Open Case

The Justin and Amber Hicks murder case ended in November 2025, four years after the killings, when a Cobb County judge convicted their neighbor, Matthew Lanz, of shooting the young Acworth, Georgia couple to death inside their home and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The couple’s two-year-old son, Jacob, was upstairs during the shooting and was left alone with his parents’ bodies for roughly twelve hours before he was found.

Who Justin and Amber Hicks Were

Justin Hicks, 31, was a firefighter with the Cherokee County Fire and Emergency Service, where he had served for more than six years.¹ Amber Michelle Hicks, also 31, was the daughter of Mark Boggs and the late Dorinda Boggs.² They had moved into the Acworth house 73 days before they were killed.³

The Night of November 17, 2021

Matthew Lanz broke in through a back window and fatally shot both Justin and Amber. At least five rounds were fired; three shell casings were recovered.⁴ Prosecutors placed the shootings between roughly 9:55 and 10:10 p.m., and Lanz put his phone in airplane mode at 10:16 p.m.³

The next morning, when Amber missed work and neither she nor Justin answered calls or texts, Justin’s father, Timothy Hicks, drove over. He looked through a smashed rear window, saw enough to know something was badly wrong, and called 911.⁴ Officers found Jacob upstairs in blood-stained pajamas, holding his father’s reading glasses. They later said the toddler had been crawling on his parents’ bodies trying to wake them.⁵

Who Matthew Lanz Was

Lanz was 22 at the time of the killings, a University of Georgia student studying cognitive science who split time between Athens and his parents’ home in Acworth. That home shared a back fence with the Hicks property. He did not know the victims.⁶⁷

His parents told police he had been seeing a psychiatrist for what they described as “bipolar/schizophrenic issues” and had made paranoid statements about “devil worshippers and demonic lights” and people being “out to get him.”⁶ The family had another link to the property: Matthew’s older brother, Austin Lanz, had been arrested in April 2021 for breaking into the same house before the Hicks family bought it.⁴ Four months later, in August 2021, Austin Lanz ambushed and killed Pentagon Police Officer George Gonzalez at a bus stop and was shot dead by responding officers.⁸

How Lanz Was Caught

Lanz was not arrested at the scene. His mother found him sleeping with a gun beside his bed the day after the killings, and his father hid the weapon in an upstairs closet.⁶ Two days after the Hicks murders, on November 19, 2021, Lanz broke into a home in Sandy Springs in Fulton County and repeatedly stabbed a responding police officer in the back and neck. Other officers shot him twice. Both Lanz and the officer survived.⁹ He was taken into custody and later charged with the Hicks killings.

The Evidence

Surveillance footage showed Lanz’s vehicle arriving in the neighborhood and a figure walking around the Hicks property multiple times between 9:31 and 9:55 p.m. before going inside.¹⁰ The murder weapon was a ZEV OZ-9mm pistol Lanz had bought in October 2021. His parents had confiscated it and locked it in a safe, but he retrieved it before the killings. Police recovered it from the family home on a search warrant.⁶

A firearms examiner matched the three casings at the scene to that pistol. An ATF DNA analyst identified Lanz’s DNA on the pistol grip and Justin Hicks’s DNA on the cartridge casings. Prosecutors introduced Lanz’s internet searches from the weeks before, including “facts about blood,” “ballistics calculators for long range shooting,” and “do heads really explode as portrayed in Pulp Fiction?”³

Nothing was stolen and there was no sign of a burglary, lead Detective Zachary Stannard testified.³ Prosecutors were never able to establish a specific motive for why Lanz targeted the couple.

Why the Case Took Four Years

The delay between arrest and trial came from repeated findings that Lanz was incompetent to stand trial. A forensic psychologist testified that he suffered from schizophrenia.⁶ After a competency hearing in October 2025, a judge ruled Lanz competent to proceed, finding he was capable of rational decision-making and was not showing active psychosis in court.¹⁰

The Bench Trial and Verdict

Lanz waived his right to a jury, so the case was decided by Cobb County Superior Court Judge Sonja Brown. Testimony ran from November 17 through November 20, 2025.¹¹ Lanz did not testify. His attorney, Jimmy Berry, argued that Lanz held a delusional belief he had been “set up by a government agency.”³

On November 20, 2025, Judge Brown found Lanz guilty on all counts:

Two counts of malice murder for the killings of Justin and Amber Hicks
Four counts of felony murder
Home invasion
Two counts of aggravated assault
Two counts of possession of a firearm during commission of a felony
Second-degree cruelty to children for leaving two-year-old Jacob alone and unsupervised
Tampering with evidence¹²

The Sentence

The next day, November 21, 2025, Judge Brown sentenced Lanz to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus an additional life sentence, 20 years, and 12 months on the remaining counts.¹³ Lanz waived his right to appear at sentencing and was not in the courtroom.¹⁰ Judge Brown said the task brought her “no joy” but that “justice required applying the law without fear or favoritism,” and told the Hicks family, “What is remembered, lives.”

Timothy Hicks, Justin’s father and a former police officer, told the judge at sentencing that he forgave Lanz for what he had done.¹⁴

The Fulton County Case Is Still Open

Lanz still faces a separate prosecution in Fulton County over the Sandy Springs stabbing of the police officer on November 19, 2021. Those charges include burglary, criminal attempt to commit murder, and aggravated assault against a law enforcement officer. As of March 2026, Judge Shukura Ingram was reviewing a video competency evaluation, with the defense arguing Lanz cannot assist in his own defense and prosecutors contending he is aware of the proceedings.¹⁵

1
Georgia State Firemen’s Association. Fully Involved
2
The Scott Funeral Home. Amber Hicks Obituary
3
Courthouse News Service. University of Georgia Student Found Guilty of Murdering Couple Inside Their Home
4
Courthouse News Service. Trial Begins for Neighbor Accused of Killing Georgia Firefighter and Wife
5
People. Slain Parents Found With Crying Toddler Cuddling Them for Attention
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Court TV. GA v. Matthew Lanz: Stranger Home Invasion Murder Trial
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Yahoo News. Trial Continues for College Student Accused of Killing Couple
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FOX 5 Atlanta. Matthew Lanz, Cobb County Murders, Sandy Springs Stabbing, Brother Pentagon Attack
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GBI Georgia. GBI Investigates Officer Involved Shooting in Sandy Springs
10
Court TV. Matthew Lanz Refuses to Appear at Emotional Sentencing for Double Murder
11
FOX 5 Atlanta. Judge Finds Matthew Lanz Guilty of Murders of Cherokee Firefighter and Wife
12
CBS News Atlanta. Matthew Lanz Murder Trial Guilty Verdict
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FOX 5 Atlanta. Matthew Lanz Sentenced to Life for Murders of Cherokee Firefighter and Wife
14
Court TV. Justin Hicks’ Father Offers Forgiveness at Killer’s Sentencing
15
Atlanta News First. Man Convicted of Killing Cobb County Couple Back in Court for Second Case