A South Georgia man is accused of fatally shooting a longtime friend in front of the friend’s wife after the couple gave him a ride home, a killing that police say ended with the suspect found nearby, armed and trying to get away.
The case has drawn unusual attention in Waycross because of how quickly it moved from an ordinary favor among people who knew each other to a roadside killing witnessed by the victim’s wife. Police identified the dead man as Jacob Garrett Cothern, 35. The suspect, 29-year-old Brandon Dale Frick, is charged with malice murder and firearm offenses, according to public reporting. He was later denied bail. The shooting is now being investigated as the city’s first reported homicide of 2026, while Cothern’s widow has begun describing publicly what she says she saw in the final moments before her husband died.
According to Waycross police, officers were called at about 8:22 p.m. March 13 to the area of Snelson Street and Old Brunel Street after a report of a shooting. When they arrived, they found Cothern with multiple gunshot wounds and tried to save him until emergency workers took over, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. As officers were heading toward the call, police said they encountered Frick a short distance away. He was armed and attempting to flee when officers took him into custody without incident, according to police. The broad public sequence is straightforward even if many details remain unsettled: a ride in a vehicle, an argument after the car stopped, gunfire near a church and a suspect found nearby before he could get far. By the next day, police had publicly identified both men and said the investigation was still active.
The fullest public account of the shooting itself has come from Cothern’s wife, Buffy Cothern, who told First Coast News she was driving when Frick, whom she said her husband considered a childhood friend, touched her arm in a way she considered inappropriate. She said she pulled over near Snelson Street and confronted him, and her husband then told Frick to get out of the vehicle and that they would not be taking him the rest of the way home. What followed, she said, happened in seconds. Buffy Cothern said Frick pulled a gun, shot her husband once, then fired again after Cothern fell and pleaded with him to stop. She said Frick then walked away calmly, behavior she described as showing no remorse. Police have not publicly released an affidavit laying out the confrontation step by step, but her account has become central to the public understanding of why a ride between acquaintances ended in a fatal shooting in the street.
The human context around the case has widened the reaction in Waycross. Buffy Cothern described her husband as loud, funny and determined to rebuild his life. She said the two married in 2024 and bonded through their shared recovery from addiction. In her account, Cothern had been out of incarceration for nearly two years, had found stability at work and was making plans that reached beyond daily survival. She said he was working for Waycross Public Works, had already earned promotions and hoped to enroll in college while pursuing a commercial driver’s license. Those details have made the shooting resonate as more than a grim police brief. In the public picture drawn by his widow, Cothern was not simply the victim in a murder case. He was a husband who believed he had finally found consistency and forward motion. That framing has turned the story into one about interruption as much as violence: a life described as getting steadier, then ending abruptly during what began as a routine act of helping someone get home.
Procedurally, the case remains in its early stage even though the basic charge is already severe. Public reporting says Frick is being held in the Ware County Jail without bond after a later appearance before a magistrate. Law&Crime, citing police information, reported that he faces one count each of malice murder, unauthorized discharge of a firearm and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. Local coverage initially described the arrest more simply as a murder charge, which is common in the first days of a case before court records and booking information are fully sorted out in public. What has not been publicly reported, at least in the sources reviewed Friday, is a next scheduled superior court date. That means the likely next milestone is an indictment or first formal superior court appearance, when prosecutors would begin to define more clearly how they intend to present motive, witness testimony and physical evidence. For now, authorities are still asking the public for information as the investigation continues.
The setting has also shaped the force of the story. This was not a hidden killing discovered hours later in a house or on a rural road. It happened near a church, on a city street, after a short drive that by all public accounts should have ended with someone being dropped off and everyone going home. Buffy Cothern’s account adds to that sense of collapse. She says her husband was trying to de-escalate the confrontation and draw a line after what she described as disrespect toward her. Instead, she said, the argument turned deadly in front of her. For residents of Waycross, that kind of public violence can linger differently than a case with fewer witnesses. A wife says she saw it. Police say they caught the suspect nearby. The victim was a local public works employee trying to hold a new life together. Those are the elements that carry a local homicide beyond the crime scene and into civic memory almost immediately.
The case may also leave prosecutors weighing how much of the story will depend on the widow’s testimony. Police have already put Frick in custody, and officers say they found him armed near the scene, but the emotional center of the public record remains Buffy Cothern’s account from inside the car and beside the road. Her statement provides the clearest public explanation for what triggered the stop, why the victim told Frick to get out and how quickly the conflict escalated. If the case proceeds as expected, those details will likely matter both legally and narratively. Jurors may eventually hear not only where Frick was found and what charges were filed, but also the final exchange between two men who had known each other for years. Until then, the official record remains narrower than the grief attached to it. One man is dead, one is jailed without bond, and the widow who says she watched it happen is left to explain how a favor became a killing.
As of March 20, Frick remained jailed without bond, the investigation was still open, and no next court date had been publicly reported. The next public step is likely to be an indictment or first superior court proceeding that lays out the prosecution’s case in fuller detail.