Business Partner Conspired To Kill Bakery Co-Owner: Indictment

WOODSTOCK, GA — A Woodstock resident conspired with a former employee to kill his business partner because the victim was planning pull out of their bakery venture. That's according to a Cobb County grand jury, which indicted Ross Allyson Byrne this week on charges in connection to the 2014 stabbing death of Jerry Moore, co-owner of Best Dang Bakery Around in Woodstock.

The grand jury on Thursday indicted Byrne on three counts of felony murder and one count each of malice murder, conspiracy to conceal the death of another, conspiracy to hinder apprehension of a criminal and racketeering. Byrne was booked into the Cobb County Jail where he's being held without bond, the Cobb County District Attorney's Office said.

As readers recall, Johnathan Wheeler was convicted last week with murdering Moore in January 2014. Wheeler, who briefly worked at the bakery at 9539 Highway 92, was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without parole.

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Thursday's indictment notes Moore and Byrne, who were roommates at a home on Gracewood Drive near Sandy Plains Road in East Cobb, entered into a partnership to launch the bakery in January 2008. By January 2014, the relationship between the business partners soured, and Byrne moved out of the East Cobb home. Tensions between the two surrounded the finances of Best Dang Bakery Around, with Moore expressing concerns about Byrne's spending habits related to the venture.

Moore, the indictment notes, was planning to terminate his business relationship with Byrne. According to the documents establishing the business, Byrne would have had to buy out Moore's share of the venture, which amounted to $35,000. Prosecutors say that is "unlikely that [the] defendant would have been able to afford the proposed buyout of victim Jerry Moore's partnership interest."

Prosecutors note Byrne, who moved out weeks before Moore was killed, was a "business mentor" to Wheeler. Both men also conspired to rob and steal from Moore at the East Cobb home in January 2014. Late on Jan. 25, 2014, Wheeler drove to Moore's home on Gracewood Drive near Sandy Plains Road in East Cobb and used a key to get inside. Inside the home, he assaulted Moore, unleashing 32 stab wounds onto the victim, including multiple jabs to the back.

When he left the scene, Wheeler drove to Byrne's new home, prosecutors said. Soon afterward, Wheeler confessed the murder to his cousin, with whom he was having a sexual relationship. The next day, the two went back to Moore's home to clean up and steal some items. She was convicted of burglary and tampering, and testified as a witness at Wheeler's trial. Wheeler also confessed the crime to his brother and his stepfather.

Byrne is scheduled to be arraigned in the coming weeks before Cobb County Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark.

Photo: Ross Allyson Byrne. Credit: Cobb County Detention Center