Rossville man gets life sentence for 2018 stabbing

LAFAYETTE, Georgia (WDEF) – A Rossville man gets a life sentence for the killing of an old friend.

Police says Steven Lewis Whittaker and Buddy Hankins had been friends for years.

But that ended in August of 2018.

They were at Whittaker’s home drinking, when they got into a fight.

Just before 11PM, 911 got a call from the home claiming there was a “Dead Man Down.”

That dead man was Hankins.

Whittaker first claimed that Hankins had attacked him, so he had to kill him in retaliation.

But he later told police that he didn’t remember what happened, but figured that he just came unglued.

The coroner ruled that Hankins had been stabbed, strangled and suffered a broken neck.

Neighbors testified that the man had come to blows before, with Whittaker usually winning.

And the drinking was a big factor.

“It was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde when he would get on the liquor, he would get real bad.”

This beating was particularly brutal.

GBI medical examiner Dr. Keith Lehman testified that there were more than 50 stab and cut wounds to the head and neck of the victim.

Prosecutors presented evidence of an extensive criminal record by Whittaker at sentencing.

The judge gave him life without parole, plus five years for the knife.

Judge Thompson said  “If you could do this to your longtime friend, I would hate to see what you would do to someone else.”