Ryan Cooper (Dougherty County Jail) and Lacambria Deonshay Toomer (Facebook).
The mother of a Georgia murder victim whose remains have still not been found faced her daughter’s killer in court Friday, using his sentencing hearing to make one desperate request: tell her where her child is.
Ryan Cooper offered no answer. As the grieving mother pleaded for help finding her daughter’s body, he remained silent, his expression unmoved.
A judge in Georgia sentenced Cooper, 28, to life in prison for the killing of 23-year-old Lacambria Deonshay Toomer. Cooper was convicted of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and concealing the death of another. Toomer’s body has never been recovered.
Before the sentence was handed down, Toomer’s mother, Melassia Thornton, addressed Cooper directly. Her voice carried the weight of four years of anguish as she asked him to finally disclose what happened to her daughter’s remains.
“You have an opportunity to give me that closure by telling me where my baby’s body is,” Thornton begged. “If you had any heart left in you, before I leave here today, please give me that closure. Please tell me where my baby is. Please tell me where my baby is, so I can go on with my life and at least have a place to go.”
Thornton told the court the past four years have been unbearable. She has been forced to mourn her daughter’s death while also living with the pain of not being able to lay her to rest with a proper burial.
“Closure is not just a word for me,” she said through tears. “Closure is where you can finally go, where you can finally mourn your daughter without uncertainty, where you can finally have answers. Without the location of her body, my grief has no resting place. Every day is longer than it should be. Every day I have to live with unanswered questions that should have been resolved long ago.”
The grieving mother is now taking care of her daughter’s and Cooper’s son, who was just an infant at the time of the murder. The boy deserves to know what happened to his mother, she told Cooper.
Thornton spoke about how she has not stopped looking for her daughter.
“I was in places I had no business going. I was in wooded areas, walking in water,” she lamented. “I was going to places I’ve not even thought about going before. Day in, day out, I was out looking for my baby, ’cause that is what a mama’s supposed to do.”
But Cooper ignored the pleas. He just sat there, saying nothing and showing no emotion.
Dougherty County Superior Court Judge Denise Marshall called it “cringeworthy.”
“I’ve never sentenced anybody to life without the possibility of parole. But I am going to do it today,” she said.
As previously reported, the jury took less than an hour to convict Cooper.
“Ryan Cooper is absolutely, 100% guilty of all the charges that have been brought before you,” prosecutor Gregory W. Edwards told the jury during closing arguments. “There should be no doubt in your mind that Ryan Cooper is guilty.”
Edwards said Cooper shot and killed Toomer to send a message.
“He wasn’t playing around,” the prosecutor said. “He meant business.”
Cooper could have disposed of Toomer’s body anywhere in Georgia, and by doing so, chose to erase the “very existence of Lacambria Toomer,” said Edwards.
Defense attorney Benjamin Davis tried to raise reasonable doubt with the jury by attacking the credibility of the state’s “paid” blood experts, saying their erroneous testimony has led to false convictions before.
“What is this case really about?” Davis asked. “This case is about jumping to a conclusion, [and] not doing all that you need to do to investigate a crime.”
Davis also reiterated that Toomer’s body has never been recovered and spoke about the length of time between Cooper’s arrest and indictment. Cops arrested Cooper on May 31, 2023. A grand jury indicted Cooper in March 2026, court records say.
“They haven’t been able to find her,” Davis said. “They claimed that she died, I get that. But it took them an enormous amount of time to reach that decision and ultimately to get these experts. And they still haven’t figured it out. Their case makes absolutely no sense.”
Toomer was last seen in Albany, Georgia, on Aug. 13, 2022, and was reported missing 11 days later. According to local NBC affiliate WALB, authorities believe Cooper killed Toomer around Aug. 15 or 16, 2022. He claimed he dropped her off at a gas station, but cops say that’s not true.
Prosecutors reportedly pieced together the case using text messages between Cooper and Toomer and cellphone GPS records. Cooper was the last person to be with Toomer, according to cops. Her last known text message was sent on Aug. 15, 2022.
Authorities did not divulge a motive for the killing.
The post ‘Please tell me where my baby is’: Killer sits stone-faced as mother begs him to reveal the location of her daughter’s body first appeared on Law & Crime.
