Trial For Teens Accused In Etowah Plot Could Start In April

WOODSTOCK, GA — Two former Etowah High School students who were arrested and charged with allegedly planning to carry out an attack on their classmates will go to trial in the spring.

That's according to Cherokee County Superior Court records, which show the case against Victoria Gabrielle McCurley and Alfred Dupree III will begin at 9 a.m April 18 with jury selection.

Shannon Wallace, Cherokee County's district attorney, said Superior Court Judge Ellen McElyea has also scheduled motion hearings for 9 a.m. March 13. Once the jury is seated, the court anticipates the trial lasting two weeks, April 22-26 and April 29 through May 3.

The former students in June 2018 entered not guilty pleas and waived formal arraignments on the charges outlined in a December 2017 indictment. They were indicted by a Cherokee County grand jury on six counts of conspiracy to commit murder and one count each of conspiracy to commit arson and unlawful possession of a destructive device, court records show.

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The pair were arrested in October after the Cherokee Sheriff's Office was notified by the Cherokee County Schools Police Department of threats made against the school. An investigation and search of the students' homes launched by detectives unearthed a personal journal/diary, a "homemade incendiary device, which was described as a flammable substance, and an undetermined powder (sic) substance," the Cherokee Sheriff's Office previously told Patch.

According to the indictment, the students came up with a "kill list" that had the names of their classmates and at least one staff member at Etowah. They are also accused of creating a map of a portion of the school and collecting and preparing flammable and explosive materials to "knowingly damage, by means of fire and explosives," Etowah High School.

The indictment also charges the students planned to use those items to "kill, injure and intimidate students and staff at Etowah High School; and to destroy Etowah High School."

Their arrest warrants were sealed by a judge, so no other details related to the case have been made public at this time. Both remain held without bond at the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center, Cherokee Sheriff's Office spokesperson Jay Baker said.

Photo: from left, Alfred Dupree of Acworth and Victoria McCurley of Woodstock. Credit: Cherokee Sheriff's Office