Prosecutors combined location data, surveillance footage and recorded jail calls to link Devin Riley to the fatal shooting.
ATLANTA, Ga. — A rental car equipped with a tracking device became a key piece of evidence in the case against Devin Riley, who was sentenced to life without parole plus 50 years after his conviction in the fatal shooting of McDonald’s co-worker Quintavious Clark.
The case presented prosecutors with an identification challenge: Surveillance cameras captured the Feb. 7, 2025, shooting in an East Point McDonald’s parking lot, but prosecutors acknowledged that the video did not clearly show the shooter’s face. Investigators instead combined the footage with location data from a rented red sedan and recorded jailhouse telephone calls as they worked to connect Riley to the attack.
Clark, 24, was sitting in his vehicle during a break at about 2 a.m. when another vehicle pulled alongside him, according to prosecutors. Authorities said shots were fired from the approaching vehicle, killing Clark. The restaurant’s security system recorded the shooting and helped investigators establish the movements of the vehicle involved before it left the area.
Prosecutors said the vehicle was a rental car fitted with a tracker. Investigators used geolocation information from the sedan to reconstruct where it had traveled around the time of the killing. Authorities said the data placed the vehicle at another residence before it went to the McDonald’s and helped investigators identify Riley as the person driving it.
Investigators said the vehicle returned to the residence after Clark was shot. Prosecutors said Riley then removed the sedan’s license plates. That sequence became part of the circumstantial case presented against him, along with the tracking information and the surveillance recording from the restaurant.
The prosecution said the killing followed a workplace dispute two days earlier. Clark had been involved in a verbal confrontation with a female manager at the restaurant, according to prosecutors. Authorities said the manager was Riley’s girlfriend at the time and argued that Riley went back to the restaurant seeking retaliation against Clark.
The surveillance footage documented the attack but did not provide prosecutors with a clear facial image of the shooter. Recorded communications later became another part of the case. Prosecutors said Riley’s jailhouse phone calls contained statements that strengthened their evidence against him and helped persuade them that he was responsible for Clark’s death.
Riley maintained that he was innocent. He denied responsibility during a call with WSB-TV from behind bars, even as prosecutors prepared the evidence that was ultimately presented to the jury. His denial contrasted with the prosecution’s case, which relied on several types of evidence rather than a clear visual identification from the shooting video alone.
A Fulton County jury ultimately convicted Riley of murder. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis later called the killing “a very stupid crime.” The verdict established Riley’s criminal responsibility after jurors considered the prosecution’s evidence, including the circumstances surrounding the workplace dispute and the material investigators collected after the shooting.
Riley, 35, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus an additional 50 years. The sentence followed a case in which investigators used digital location information and recorded communications to supplement surveillance footage that captured the crime but did not clearly reveal the shooter’s identity.
The sentencing closes the trial-level phase of the prosecution more than a year and a half after Clark was killed. The publicly reviewed reports did not specify whether Riley plans to challenge the conviction or sentence on appeal.
Author note: Last updated October 3, 2026.