Family still hopeful 2016 downtown murder will be solved

Daniel Macias

By Joe Johnsony

Nine years ago today Daniel Macias was killed in cold blood on a downtown Athens street corner.

The police investigation has yet to yield an arrest but Daniel’s family members remain hopeful that judgment day is coming for the killer.

“We are hoping that someone will come forward,”‘said the victim’s sister-In-law Christy Rohmer Burrows. “We are hoping someone that was too scared to talk nine years ago will finally come forward with some information.”

Daniel was murdered the night of August 13, 2016, after working his shift at Agua Linda on Prince Avenue.

He went downtown after receiving a phone call from a friend who was wanting to meet up.

From downtown surveillance camera footage, police were able to establish that Daniel was outside the 9d’s Bar on East Clayton Street as it was closing at 2:25 a.m.

He was back on the phone with his friend as he walked towards his car that was parked near the county courthouse on Washington Street.

The phone call was abruptly ended at 2:38 a.m. when someone shot Daniel five times in the chest at point blank range at the corner of North Jackson Street and East Hancock Avenue.

He collapsed and died in a bed of landscaping mulch next to the courthouse sally port for the vans that shuttle prisoners to and from jail.

The life that was ended there had begun in South Carolina, where Daniel was born. He grew up in Alpharetta, and in 2007 he enrolled at the University of Georgia, where he majored in business management.

He completed four years at UGA, but was not a student when he was killed. Family members said Daniel fell in love with Athens and decided to remain here.

Daniel with friends downtown

At 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds, Erica Macias called her brother a “gentle giant” who had a booming laugh, contagious smile and wonderful sense of humor that made him well known and liked in the downtown Athens nightlife scene.

More importantly, Daniel was the heart and soul of a loving family and the person who took him away still walks free,

“We need to get this monster off the street,” Teresa Macias said. “He took my baby, he took somebody’s brother, he took somebody’s uncle.”

Teresa Macias holds a photograph of her sons Daniel and Christopher

“Please, whoever you are, turn yourself in you coward,” she said. “Now that’s truly how I feel. I could go on and on, but with anger.

“Somebody knows something out there,”Teresa continued. “Please help me, I need closure I’m not going to rest until I have closure. Daniel deserves justice and we are going to get it.”

Teresa Macias ((center) is flanked by her children (left to right): Daniel, Tosha, Erica, and Christopher

The Macias family is offering a $10,000 reward for information that helps police identify the killer. That is in addition to a Crime Stoppers reward of $1,000.

Anyone with information that might help the investigation is asked to contact Detective Matt Cawthorn at 762-400-7431.

Tips can also be emailed to coldcaseunit@accgov.com.

Anyone wishing to remain anonymous can call the confidential Crime Stoppers Tip Line at 706-705-4775. (Reference Case # 16-08-0900).

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