WTOC reported a McIntosh County judge sentenced George Humphreys to life without parole for killing Tony Ferguson.

Thursday's term is the judgment on Wednesday's unanimous verdict. Five counts and the four charges named at the 2025 arrest are not the same list. Age 34 and age 33 are not the same age. The Oct. 29 story did not print Judge Dixon's name. WTOC did not report an appeal.

WTOC reported Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, in a story published at 11:36 a.m. EDT by Madalyn Bierster, that a judge sentenced George Humphreys to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 10 years to run consecutively, for the killing of Tony Ferguson. The station reported a McIntosh County jury found him guilty on all five counts Wednesday night. It reported the judge said he was sentencing Humphreys as a recidivist because of multiple prior felony convictions. It reported the prosecutor said those prior felony convictions were from 2011, again in 2011, 2013, 2016, and 2019, and that the prosecutor asked for the maximum sentence allowed. WTOC quoted the prosecutor: "He's been convicted twice of threatening to kill 2 different people then he in fact did kill Tony Ferguson. We are asking for the maximum sentence allowed. He hasn't been allowed to have a gun in years and continues to possess firearms." Those earlier cases are what the prosecutor recited at sentencing. They are not Wednesday's five counts. The station reported at least 25 family members of Ferguson were in court and that his oldest daughter spoke. It reported some of Humphreys's children were there, along with his mother and two other women, and that his mother spoke before the sentence. The children are not named here. The rows were full.

Wednesday's verdict is the finding the sentence sits on. WTOC reported that around 6:30 p.m. the jury found him guilty on all five charges, after deliberations of around an hour, in a trial that lasted three days. A WTOC story on the second day of testimony carries an Oct. 28 address and a timestamp of Oct. 27, 2026, at 10:47 p.m. EDT. Its body says that as of Wednesday evening around 5:30, deliberations had begun. Around 5:30 and around 6:30, with about an hour of deliberation, are one timeline only if both clocks are right. That story said he faced malice murder and felony murder, along with multiple gun charges. It did not name a fifth count. WTOC's verdict story, published at 7:55 p.m. EDT on Oct. 28, said sentencing would start at 9 a.m. Thursday in McIntosh County Superior Court and that the station would report the ruling from Judge Dixon. The Oct. 29 sentencing story did not print Dixon's name and did not print 9 a.m. A scheduled start and a published sentence are not the same clock.

WTOC's Jan. 16, 2025 arrest story, updated Jan. 18, 2025, at 4 p.m. EST, said Tony James Ferguson was 41 and that 33-year-old George "Big Head" Shawn Humphreys was apprehended on Jan. 15 by what the station wrote as the "United States Marshal Service Fugitive Task Force" in Jacksonville, Florida. It said he was charged then with felony murder, malice murder, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession of a firearm during certain crimes. Four named charges and five counts are not the same list. The Oct. 28 verdict story said he is 34 and that he was arrested a month later. Age 33 in January 2025 and age 34 in October 2026 are a year apart. "A month later" and Jan. 15 are the same gap after Dec. 15. The 2025 story said deputies were dispatched about 1:45 a.m. on Dec. 15, 2024, to a shooting on Georgia Highway 99 at Palmer Court, that hundreds of people were in the area, and that Ferguson was taken to Southeast Georgia Medical Center in Brunswick, where he died. The 2026 stories said prosecutors put the shooting at a party on Georgia Highway 99 near Palmer Court in December 2024, and that prosecutors and the defense said the two had been friends. Near Palmer Court and at Palmer Court are two ways of placing one scene. Tony James Ferguson and Tony Ferguson are two forms of one name. The 2026 stories did not print his age.

WTOC reported two witnesses identified Humphreys as the shooter. It reported a friend who knew both men testified that he saw the shooting after a brief argument, that a white car drove off, that two more shots rang out, and that he saw Humphreys get in that car. It reported Ferguson's brother testified that Ferguson said "Big Head" shot him while he was dying. The station reported "Big Head" is Humphreys's nickname. It reported the defense asked for a mistrial twice and the judge denied both requests. The first followed a witness who said he had met Humphreys in prison. WTOC reported the judge pointed out that one charge in the trial is possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The second followed the lead investigator's testimony that Humphreys asked to speak to an attorney instead of meeting her, because he was afraid the meeting was a setup. It reported a firearms expert identified a 9mm pistol as the weapon. WTOC's opening story, published at 12:20 a.m. EDT on Oct. 27, said the jury was eight women and four men, with two alternates. It quoted the defense attorney: "He was talking, he was answering questions, and he never told a single other person in that crowd, a single deputy, paramedic, who shot him." That sentence is the defense account of what Ferguson did not say. The brother's testimony is the prosecution account of what he did say. WTOC also reported a statement the sheriff released at the time of the death: "This tragic loss of life should have been avoided. There is no need for an argument to escalate into someone being shot." Thursday's order is the sentence on Wednesday's verdict. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.