Judge clears 1999 Georgia girlfriend murder case for trial after arrest
A judge let a murder charge advance in a 1999 Atlanta cold case after Janarra Sherrer’s arrest, sending Bridgett Lockhart’s case toward trial nearly 27 years later.
A Barrow County Superior Court judge has allowed a murder charge to move forward in the 1999 killing of Bridgett Lockhart, sending the case toward trial after nearly 27 years without a resolution. The ruling marks a major procedural step in a homicide that Atlanta investigators say was never fully explained when it first went cold.
Police identified the suspect as 61-year-old Janarra Sherrer, whom investigators described as Lockhart’s former boyfriend. One account of the arrest said Sherrer turned himself in to police on July 13, 2026, after Atlanta police arrested a man in the cold case homicide. Court records and the reporting in the case also indicate he faces a firearm charge along with murder.
Lockhart was described as a mother of two in the case materials tied to the arrest. The killing remained unsolved for nearly 27 years before prosecutors brought the matter back into court, and the judge’s decision means the state can now try to prove its case before a jury rather than leaving the file in the cold-case archive.
The case has been framed in Atlanta as a 1999 homicide that was revisited after investigators reopened the decades-old investigation. The precise evidence that persuaded prosecutors to file charges has not been publicly detailed in the available notes, but the court’s ruling shows the state believes the case is strong enough to survive a challenge and proceed into the next phase of litigation.
For Lockhart’s family, the arrest and the court ruling changed the case from a dormant file into an active criminal prosecution. For Sherrer, the move toward trial means he must now answer for both the murder allegation and the firearm charge in a case built on evidence and witness accounts that are more than a quarter-century old.
The next courtroom fight will center on whether that old record can hold up under modern scrutiny. After nearly 27 years, the case that started with a 1999 death in Atlanta is now heading toward the kind of trial that could finally put the file before a jury.
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