The killing of Anthony Collins followed an earlier clash over the same dogs.
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — Anthony Collins was walking his Jack Russell puppies through a Lawrenceville neighborhood when a dispute with a neighbor turned deadly, leading five years later to a life sentence for Stanley Nathaniel Elliott.
Collins, 44, died Feb. 25, 2021, after he was shot along Riverside Parkway in Gwinnett County. Elliott, 75, was convicted in May 2026 of felony murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. The sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole, plus five years, followed testimony that the two men had a history involving the puppies and that police later found the murder weapon hidden at Elliott’s home. The case began in a place tied to ordinary neighborhood movement. Collins was near a popular dog park and not far from McKendree Elementary School when officers found him near his car with a gunshot wound. Police at first described the killing as a shooting during a walk and looked for a man seen in the area carrying a large stick or pole. For residents, the first public details were simple and alarming: a man had been killed outside, in daylight, during an errand as common as walking dogs.
As the investigation developed, the focus shifted to Elliott, a Lawrenceville man who prosecutors said had already confronted Collins months earlier. Witnesses told jurors that in December 2020, Elliott tried to hit the puppies with a metal rod. The rod was described as something Elliott used to keep stray dogs away. Prosecutors used that earlier episode to show the shooting did not come from nowhere. It followed contact between two neighbors over the dogs, then escalated into a fatal encounter when Collins was again outside with the puppies.
The shooting itself was described in court as brief. Collins encountered Elliott on the afternoon of Feb. 25, 2021, and prosecutors said Elliott shot him after a short altercation. Public reports do not give the exact words spoken by either man before the gunfire. Jurors did see surveillance footage that prosecutors said showed a man resembling Elliott raise his arm after a short interaction with a man walking dogs. That footage helped move the case from a neighborhood report to a courtroom account of what happened in the final moments.
The physical evidence later reached into Elliott’s garage. Police found the gun used in the killing hidden in a motorboat, prosecutors said. That discovery gave the state a direct link between the shooting and Elliott’s property. The location also became part of the story jurors heard about consciousness after the killing, even though public reports do not say what Elliott told police about the weapon. The firearm evidence supported both the murder case and the separate charge tied to use of a gun during a felony.
Gwinnett County District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson said after the conviction that the case showed the cost of turning a dispute into violence. “Violence, and especially deadly violence, is not the answer for solving any dispute,” Austin-Gatson said. She said her office hoped the outcome gave Collins’ friends and loved ones closure and a sense that justice had prevailed. The statement placed the verdict in the language of accountability rather than neighborhood conflict, emphasizing that the dispute over puppies ended with a man’s death.
The prosecution was handled by Assistant District Attorney Nam Nguyen and Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney Ryan Smith, with help from Investigator Benjamin Lucas and Victim Witness Advocate Trina Bradford. The Gwinnett County Police Department was also credited for its role in the case. Their work spanned the first response to the parking area, the search for the man seen on video, the arrest of Elliott and the later presentation of evidence to jurors. By the time of trial, the case had become both a homicide prosecution and a reconstruction of a local conflict.
Elliott’s sentence means he will enter prison with parole possible under state rules, but with no immediate release date. He was 70 when arrested and 75 when sentenced. The additional five years came from the firearm conviction. It is not clear from public records whether he will appeal. Any appeal could focus on evidence, trial rulings or sentencing issues, but the jury’s verdict now stands unless a higher court changes it.
The puppies at the center of the first dispute became part of a larger courtroom record. Reports do not say they were injured during the shooting, and officials have not released their later status. Collins, however, did not survive the walk. He was found in a parking area near his car, and the case that followed stayed open in public memory because of the unusual facts: a dog walk, an earlier metal-rod confrontation and a gun hidden in a boat.
The current record ends with Elliott convicted and sentenced in Gwinnett County Superior Court. The next event, if one is filed, would be a post-trial motion or appeal. Until then, Collins’ death remains a completed murder case with a life sentence tied to a neighborhood walk that turned fatal.
Author note: Last updated June 1, 2026.