Macon man convicted in shooting death that stemmed from ‘altercation between neighbors’

A Macon man who had been charged with murder in the shooting death of a neighbor during a 2019 dispute pleaded guilty in Bibb County Superior Court on Tuesday to voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and other charges.

Teondrious Deon Johnson, 38, was sentenced to 40 years — 15 of them behind bars and the remaining 25 years on probation.

Johnson had been accused of malice and felony murder as well as aggravated assault and a gun-possession crime in the Oct. 23, 2019, shooting of 37-year-old Deontae Rachell, who died two days later.

Johnson’s plea came on the eve of his trial, which had been set to begin this week. Had he been convicted of the more serious charges, he faced life in prison.

Rachell’s death came amid gunfire in a neighborhood south of downtown Macon, near the corner of Pebble and Shaw streets. Authorities have since said that it was unclear who fired the first shot in what investigators at the time said was an “altercation between neighbors.”