Prosecutors shed more light on their case against an Atlanta woman who was recently found guilty of her best friend’s murder and reportedly suggested that the death happened after the pair were playfighting.
O’Keisha Range, 37, was arrested in March 2022 and charged with murder and aggravated assault in connection with the death of 34-year-old Shameria Gelisa Fletcher.
A week before her arrest, Atlanta police responded to a “person down” call at a townhouse complex on Piedmont Avenue near Ralph McGill Boulevard, where Fletcher and Range lived.
Officers arrived to find Fletcher unconscious, and when paramedics arrived, they pronounced her dead at the scene.
The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office determined that Fletcher’s cause of death was manual strangulation, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Within days, homicide detectives found enough probable cause to arrest Range and charge her with Fletcher’s murder.
Fulton County prosecutors told WSB-TV that both women were best friends. They were so close they called each other sisters — Range’s nickname was “Mo,” and Fletcher’s was “Mimi.”
However, they say defining aspects of Range’s and Fletcher’s friendship were causes for concern.
Prosecutors stated that Range held an iron grip on the relationship, frequently faking illnesses to manipulate Fletcher. During two interviews with Atlanta detectives, prosecutors say Range was faking seizures, allegations Range’s lawyers denounced.
“She still maintains that she’s never faked any type of seizures,” defense attorney Anton Rowe said. “She did in fact have real illnesses.”
A woman who testified in court stated that she lived with both women for 10 months and said that Range was “very controlling” of Fletcher, and pointed to instances when Range would draw attention to times she was sick, and behave in strange ways when Fletcher’s friends were around.
“When we were roommates together, they seemed to have a great relationship,” former roommate Antoinette Degree said. “I wanted justice for Mimi, because during the time that I was in her space, I didn’t feel like she was being treated fair in the friendship.”
Prosecutors say that during the time when both women lived together, Range never paid rent, bought herself food, or had a source of income, to which Range’s defense attorney responded, “Being a freeloader does not equal a murderer.”
When asked to account for what happened the day Fletcher died, Range said that she and Fletcher had been playfighting, according to prosecutors. Range kicked her, but said Fletcher was still alive and talking after that. Range didn’t explain how the choking factored into that.
Prosecutors delivered a very different version of events, asserting that Range beat Fletcher badly, then strangled her.
“She beat her where she had contusions all over her body from her head to her feet. And then after that, she strangled her to death,” Fulton County Chief Senior Assistant District Attorney Kassie Hall said.
Range was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life without parole.
Her attorney said that she has expressed a desire to appeal the case and file a motion for a new trial.