Miles Bryant Case: Trial, Sentence, Appeal, and Civil Suit

The Miles Bryant case ended in June 2024 with a Gwinnett County jury convicting the former Doraville, Georgia, police officer of murdering 16-year-old Susana Morales, who vanished walking home in July 2022. Bryant was found guilty of malice murder, felony murder, kidnapping, and filing a false report, and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus a consecutive 12 months. A judge denied his motion for a new trial on March 30, 2026, and he has filed notice of appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court.¹

Who Susana Morales Was and How She Disappeared

Susana Morales, known to family as “Susi,” was a 16-year-old from Norcross, Georgia. On the night of July 26, 2022, she left a friend’s apartment at the Sterling Glen Apartments and started walking home. She texted her mother around 9:40 p.m. that she was on her way.²

Data from the Life360 tracking app told the rest of the story. Between roughly 10:07 and 10:21 p.m., her phone showed her moving toward home on foot. Then the app registered a vehicle traveling around 40 miles per hour, followed by alerts consistent with a car crash and a sudden change in direction.³ Surveillance video from a daycare on Singleton Road caught her walking that evening. It was the last time she was seen alive.⁴

Her family reported her missing the next morning. According to the family, the Gwinnett County Police Department initially treated the case as a runaway and did not take it seriously.²

How Investigators Identified Bryant

Morales’s skeletal remains were found more than six months later, on February 6, 2023, in a wooded area near Highway 316 and Drowning Creek Road in Dacula, about 20 miles from where she was last seen. Investigators identified her in part by fingernails painted with black polish, matching what she had been wearing the night she disappeared.³

About 30 yards from the remains, authorities recovered a black Glock 19 pistol. The gun belonged to Miles Bryant, then 22, who had reported it stolen from his unlocked car the morning after Morales disappeared.⁵ Bryant was a Doraville police officer who also worked as a courtesy officer at Sterling Glen, the same complex Morales had visited the night she vanished. He was also a member of the Army National Guard. Investigators found no evidence that Bryant and Morales had any prior relationship.⁶

Police interrogated Bryant on February 13, 2023, and confronted him with the gun. He was arrested that day on charges of concealing the death of another and filing a false report. A Gwinnett County grand jury added kidnapping and felony murder charges on February 22. He was fired from the Doraville Police Department immediately after his arrest.⁷

What the Prosecution Proved at Trial

The trial took place in Gwinnett County Superior Court before Judge Tamela Adkins in June 2024. The prosecution’s case was largely circumstantial, built on digital forensics, witness testimony, and Bryant’s behavior in the months around the crime.

Cell tower data placed both of Bryant’s phones — personal and work — near where Morales was last seen the night of July 26, and later near the wooded area off Highway 316 where her remains were found.⁸ Internet history recovered from his devices included a search for “How long does it take a body to decompose?” and searches related to the wooded area where she was ultimately found.³

The medical examiner, Dr. Carol Terry, listed the official cause of death as undetermined because the skeletal condition of the remains prevented a definitive finding. She testified that the circumstances were “very suspicious for homicidal violence,” and that strangulation, chest compression, or suffocation could not be ruled out.⁷

A former cellmate, Michael Jones, testified that Bryant told him in jail he believed he would never be linked to the murder because no bodily fluids or blood were recovered at the scene.⁴ Alyssa Marvin, a friend of Morales, testified that on July 20, 2022, six days before the disappearance, Bryant offered her, Morales, and another friend alcohol and edibles despite knowing they were underage. They declined. Another friend, Esmeralda Castillo, testified that Bryant had previously offered her and Morales a ride, which they also turned down. That testimony was admitted as prior-bad-act evidence.⁹

Prosecutors also played body camera footage from May 2022, two months before Morales vanished, in which Bryant was responding to a report of a missing girl who had since come home. On the video he told the girl: “If something were to happen to you we are doing a rape or a missing person, then we find your body out there in the woods. Then what? … People are my size, big, and snatch you up. You can scream and shout all you want, they will throw you in the back of a van. They will take you, and your parents will never see you again.”⁴ Prosecutors called Bryant a “predator” who used his badge to satisfy his own desires.

What the Defense Argued

Defense attorney Tracy Drake acknowledged that Morales had been inside Bryant’s vehicle the night she disappeared. Drake argued there was no direct evidence Bryant caused her death: no forensic link, no established cause of death, no confession. The defense suggested Morales may have died of a drug overdose and that Bryant, finding her dead or unconscious, dumped her in the woods in a panic rather than killing her.⁴ Drake characterized the state’s case as built “solely on circumstantial evidence.”¹⁰

On the false report charge, the defense maintained Bryant lied about the gun because he feared losing his job, not to cover up a killing. Drake told jurors in opening statements that Bryant would testify and explain what happened. He never took the stand. The defense called no witnesses and put on no evidence.⁷

Verdict and Sentence

On June 12, 2024, after fewer than six hours of deliberation, the jury found Bryant guilty of malice murder, felony murder, kidnapping, and misdemeanor false report of a crime. He was acquitted of one count of criminal attempt to commit rape.⁷

Judge Adkins sentenced Bryant to life in prison without the possibility of parole on the murder charges, plus a consecutive 12 months for the false report.⁸ Before sentencing, Bryant told the courtroom: “I just want to apologize to everybody, to the victim’s family, that’s it.”⁴

The Appeal

Bryant moved for a new trial, arguing ineffective assistance of counsel. The motion focused on Drake’s failure to object to Dr. Terry’s testimony that the death was suspicious for homicidal violence, even though the official cause of death remained undetermined.⁷

At a February 19, 2026 hearing, Drake testified about her trial strategy. She acknowledged: “It was kind of difficult in this case because it was so emotionally charged. I probably should have objected more, but I was trying to temper with not being [seen as an aggressive] defense attorney to the jury.”¹¹

The court denied the motion on March 30, 2026.¹ Bryant has filed a notice of appeal indicating his intent to take the case to the Georgia Supreme Court.⁷

Civil Suit Against the Apartment Complex

In April 2024, Susana Morales’s father, Florentino Morales, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the operators of the Sterling Glen apartment complex. The complaint alleges the complex was negligent in hiring, supervising, and retaining Bryant as a courtesy officer, and that management should have known he posed a threat given what the complaint describes as his disciplinary history and alleged domestic altercations. The family has requested a jury trial and is seeking damages.¹²

1
Atlanta News First. No New Trial for Former Doraville Police Officer Convicted of Killing Teen
2
People. Susana Morales Murder and Disappearance: What to Know
3
ABC News. Officer Convicted of Teen’s Murder
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FOX 5 Atlanta. Miles Bryant Murder Trial Verdict Reached
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ABC News. Officer Convicted of Teen’s Murder
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Gwinnett County. Miles Bryant Charged With Kidnapping and Murder
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Court TV. No New Trial for Former Police Officer Convicted of Teen’s Murder
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Gwinnett County. Guilty Verdict Reached in Murder Kidnapping of Norcross Teen
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Court TV. GA v. Miles Bryant: Taken Teen Murder Trial
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WSB-TV. Jury Deliberating Fate of Former Officer Accused of Killing Teen
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FOX 5 Atlanta. Ex-Officer Miles Bryant Pushes New Trial in Susana Morales Case
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11Alive. Susana Morales Family Sues Complex Where Missing Teen Was Last Seen