The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • D1

Filename: D1-METRO-AJCD0302-BUDOG created: Mar 1 2008 Username: SPEED4 Sunday, Mar 02, 2008 METRO 1 AJCD 1 Cyan Magenta Yellow Black 1 Cyan Magenta Yellow Black AJCD File name: D1-METRO-AJCD0302-BUDOG created: Mar 1 2008 Username: SPEED4 METRO Sunday On ajc.com/metro: The AJC School Guide system-by-system information on all schools, plus test scores. Metro State SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 2008 Newsroom Customer Care 404-526-7003 THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION CHECK FOR BREAKING NEWS UPDATES AT AJC.COM Turmoil over public defense Thousands of criminal cases could be suspended if the public defender council runs out of money. D4 INSIDE CASE CLOSED FRANK NIEMEIR Staff GBI investigator John Cagle in the Cleveland One of his biggest cases and mostly like last before retirement was Meredith death. BEN GRAY The disappearance and slaying of 24-year-old hiker Meredith Emerson haunts the lead investigator on the case. He wonders why some things were and done and could doing so have prevented her death.

By RHONDA COOK John Cagle said he wakes up at night thinking about how close investigators came to Meredith Emerson. A turn down a different trail might have led searchers to the 24- year-old hiker before it was too late. Still fresh in mind are the hours spent with her parents and his interview with Gary Michael Hilton, the scrawny vagabond who admit ted he kidnapped Emerson from a North Georgia hiking trail just for money he expected she would but never did give him. thing that bothers us, or me, is what was going through her mind what she was going through. said Cagle, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent who was lead investigator on the Emerson case.

think about how close we After 30 years with the GBI, Cagle, 53, is retiring from the GBI at the end of this month but will continue in law enforcement as head of the Dawson County criminal investigation division. experience is extensive, but geography put him in charge of the Emerson disappearance and murder case. Born, reared and still solidly anchored in the mountains, he leads the Cleveland which covers the three counties involved in the Hilton search Union, Towns and Dawson. Emotionally, the Emerson case hit the investigator like no other. never had a case like this where got so close to the victim and her Cagle said.

He spent many hours talking with the dead family reassuring, consoling and updating them on the very public case. Also, Meredith Emerson is the same age and bears a slight resemblance to stepdaughter. By TIM TUCKER When the Atlanta Braves decided to move their top minor-league team from run-down stadium to a new place in Gwinnett County, they wanted to make sure history repeat itself. So they negotiated hard to ensure that the Gwinnett stadium would be kept in top-notch condition at county cost. If it the deal could allow the Braves to pull their team out of the stadium after 15 years, leaving Gwinnett an empty ballpark halfway through the debt payments.

Under the agreement struck earlier this year, the Braves next year will move their Class AAA team from a 22-year-old stadium in Richmond to a $45 million ballpark to be built by Gwinnett near the Mall of Georgia. A pivotal issue in negotiations was the multi-million-dollar matter of keeping the stadium up to par over the long haul, according to county documents and interviews with principals in the deal. The Braves initially offered to sign only a 15-year lease. Gwinnett countered that the agreement had to run for 30 years because construction would be with 30-year bonds. The Braves relented to a 30-year lease, with provisions that the county fund all capital improvements needed over time and that the Braves have an escape clause if the stadium were to deteriorate sig By CHRISTIAN BOONE and RHONDA COOK Guilty of one murder, charged with another and linked to two more slayings, Gary Michael Hilton appears poised for infamy.

While he yet qualify as a the Atlanta-born transient captured the attention of FBI within a week of his arrest for the decapitation of Buford hiker Meredith Emerson. They traveled from headquarters in Quantico, to observe Hilton during ques tioning and again when he pleaded guilty Jan. 31 to the murder of Emerson, whom he abducted from Blood Mountain in North Georgia on New Day. If the evidence against Hilton he was charged Thursday in the decapitation of Crawfordville, nurse Cheryl Dunlap leads to more convictions, their research has only just begun. In anonymity, Hilton, 61, existed on the margins, drifting through a series of failed relationships, odd jobs and shiftless scams.

The Army Serial killer experts target Hilton case Stadium upkeep burden Fayette County gets its own chapter of Honor Flights, which ies ex-military to Washington to see the memorials built to commemorate them. Founder Gail Sparrow hopes to 90 people in May. She has $27,000 more to raise. Story, D6 WWII vets to be honored INSIDE deal with the Braves allows minor-leaguers to leave after 15 years if condition deteriorates. THE STORY SO FAR Previously: Gary Hilton pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison Jan.

31 for murdering Meredith Emerson, a Buford woman he met hiking in the Georgia mountains. Hilton is being assessed for a permanent prison assignment. The latest: Leon County, prosecutors charged Hilton with murdering Cheryl Dunlap, a 46-year-old nurse and Sunday school teacher, in December in Florida. next: Local, state and federal law enforcement are investigating him in connection with the killings of hikers Irene Bryant, 84, and John Bryant, 79, of North Carolina. They disappeared in October.

THE STORY SO FAR Previously: Gwinnett County announced in January it will build a stadium where the top minor-league team will begin playing in 2009. The latest: A regional impact review is under way; contracts are being hammered out; timber is being removed from the site. next: Construction is tentatively scheduled to begin in April. Please see STADIUM, 7 Please see CAGLE, 6 Please see HILTON, 6.