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Georgia Divorce Lawyer Killed by Husband of Former Client

By William Vogeler, Esq. on June 22, 2018 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

An angry litigant walked into an attorney's office and shot him to death.

If it sounds familiar, that's because it happens far too often. Many people hate lawyers -- especially the adversaries -- and will rage on them.

Antonio Mari, however, was not a typical lawyer. People really liked him.

In another life, Mari was a popular high school teacher. He taught social studies for ten years in Bartow County, Georgia.

He went on to law school and opened an office. Like most solo practitioners, he handled a variety of cases, including personal injury, criminal, and family matters.

But on a Wednesday morning, he told a fellow lawyer at the local courthouse that he was afraid of his client's estranged husband in a divorce case. That afternoon, Walter Radford walked into Mari's office and shot him.

Radford, who represented himself in the case, called his former wife and confessed to the murder. He then went to her house and killed himself.

Family Matter

Mari, 41, was known for his "desire to help people get their personal lives back on track with the least amount of stress as possible."

Lester Tate, a colleague and past president of the State Bar of Georgia, called Mari "a great credit to the legal profession."

"The practice of law is a high calling and, lest we forget, a sometimes dangerous one," he said.

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