Joseph Robert Vazquez faces a long and winding road through the legal system.
Vazquez was arrested early Saturday morning and charged with second-degree murder and child cruelty after his three-year-old daughter was fatally wounded by one of her siblings.
A similar court case played out in Metro Atlanta last year. In that case, a 7-year-old gained access to a handgun in a convenience store parking lot while his father was pumping gas. The gun went off, and the boy died. The father – Dante Lamar Daugthery – was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and child cruelty, the same charges that Vazquez is facing here in Milledgeville. Daughtery ultimately entered into a plea deal and was sentenced to two years behind bars and another eight on probation.
In a high-profile case, the father of the Apalachee High School mass shooter went to trial and ultimately was found guilty on all charges, including second-degree murder. Colin Gray received a 15-year prison sentence.
Cases in which someone is charged with murder in a shooting death without actually pulling the trigger are relatively rare, but they do happen. Two Milledgeville men were sentenced to “life plus 60 years” in 2022 after their friend was killed in a drive-by shooting. In that case, Malik Taylor, Jamerius Goodman and Jyleel Solomon drove to Central Avenue and began shooting at a man standing in the driveway. The man in the driveway returned fire, fatally wounding Solomon. The resident of Central Avenue was never charged, although Goodman and Taylor were arrested for murder and other charges.