Mayel Porter was 16 when Joshua Huff was killed in 2022, while a co-defendant received a 35-year prison sentence.
COLUMBUS, Ga. — A Muscogee County judge has sentenced Mayel Porter to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 2022 killing of 16-year-old Joshua Huff, ending a case in which the victim and the people prosecuted in his death were all teenagers at the time.
Superior Court Judge Maureen Gottfried imposed the sentence Monday, more than a month after a jury convicted Porter of murder in Huff’s death. Porter was 16 years old when Huff was shot outside an apartment complex on Cross Tie Court on Nov. 19, 2022. Huff, also 16, was taken to Piedmont Columbus Regional, where he died.
Gregory Harris, another defendant in the case who was a juvenile at the time of the shooting, was sentenced to 35 years in prison. Harris was acquitted of murder but convicted of armed robbery and aggravated assault. Porter was the only defendant at the trial convicted of killing Huff. Malik Lewis was acquitted of all charges against him.
Authorities said the shooting grew out of an armed robbery and carjacking involving a black Range Rover. Police responding to Cross Tie Court shortly after 1 a.m. found Huff wounded outside the apartments. Witnesses initially told investigators that shots had been fired from the passing Range Rover. An officer later found the vehicle in a driveway off Warm Springs Road, and its occupants fled. Investigators determined the SUV had been reported stolen in an armed robbery several days earlier.
The case did not reach a jury until nearly four years after the shooting. During the two-week trial, prosecutors presented evidence connecting the defendants, the stolen vehicle and weapons recovered during the investigation. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation firearms specialist testified that an assault-style rifle recovered from the Range Rover was tied to bullets recovered from Huff. Prosecutors also pointed to video Porter recorded during an earlier vehicle hijacking as evidence that he knew about the group’s criminal activity.
Defense attorneys challenged the strength of the state’s case and argued that prosecutors had not produced enough direct evidence to prove the charges against their clients. The jury returned a mixed verdict Sept. 11 after nearly six hours of deliberations. It convicted Porter of murder and found Porter and Harris guilty of other offenses while rejecting the murder case against Harris and clearing Lewis.
The different verdicts were reflected in Monday’s sentencing. Huff’s relatives asked Gottfried to impose the maximum punishment, while relatives of Porter and Harris asked the court for mercy. The judge acknowledged the losses faced by the families on both sides before announcing the sentences. She said she believed the young men had come from homes that taught right from wrong but nevertheless became involved in the events that led to Huff’s death.
Chief Assistant District Attorney Wesley Lambertus also focused on the defendants’ ages after sentencing, describing the case as especially troubling because those involved were so young when the crime occurred. Porter was 16 years and seven months old at the time, according to reporting from the sentencing hearing. His life-without-parole sentence means he will not have a routine opportunity for release from a Georgia prison.
The sentencing brought a major portion of the Cross Tie Court prosecution to a close, but not every case connected with the events has been resolved. Kaleb Gosha, another defendant charged with carjacking and other offenses rather than Huff’s murder, failed to appear for court before the trial. Authorities were still seeking him as of the sentencing hearing.
For Huff’s family, Monday’s proceeding marked the final sentencing of the two defendants convicted of crimes at trial in connection with the night he was killed. Porter now faces permanent imprisonment for the murder, while Harris faces decades behind bars for his role in the robbery and assault.
Author note: Last updated October 22, 2026.