A Bulloch County Superior Court jury early Wednesday afternoon found Robert Brandon Keller, 32, guilty of all charges in the Oct. 14, 2024 carjacking murder of Bruce William Dupree. Judge Matthew K. Hube then sentenced Keller to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

After what prosecutors repeatedly described as a “brutal” attack, Dupree, 43, from Metter, was found that night on the median of Interstate 16, near mile marker 113 in western Bulloch County, with his throat slashed in a “disfiguring” way. He was attended to by the Emergency Medical Service but died at the scene. After a clerk at Pojo’s truck stop on U.S. Highway 301 South told sheriff’s officers that a person who had come in and purchased a drink and other items had blood on his hands, deputies arrested Keller near the Patriot Inn.

The trial jury reportedly deliberated for less than 90 minutes on July 1, 2026, before arriving at a unanimous verdict of guilty on all 10 counts charged in the indictment true-billed by the 2024 November-term grand jury.

Formally, Judge Hube pronounced two consecutive “life without parole” sentences on Keller. One was for the first-listed charge of malice murder. The other life sentence was for the seventh listed charge, armed robbery, which the indictment based on Keller having taken Dupree’s vehicle and a cellphone by use of a knife.

The jury also convicted Keller of the separate charge of hijacking a motor vehicle, for which the judge sentenced him to 20 years confinement, and possession of a knife during commission of a felony, for which the sentence was five years confinement. On the disposition form, Hube had the 20-year sentence marked “consecutive” to the second life sentence and the five-year sentence “consecutive” to the 20 years.

Jurors also unanimously found Keller guilty of four counts of “felony murder,” or murder during the commission of a felony, and of the supporting felony charges of aggravated assault and aggravated battery, as well as the already noted hijacking and armed robbery counts.

But the judge merged the aggravated assault and aggravated battery charges into the malice murder conviction and marked the sentence boxes on the three felony murder counts “vacated by operation of law,” since a person cannot legally be sentenced for multiple murders of the same victim.

This week’s trial

The trial had begun Monday. Attorneys’ opening statements and witnesses’ testimony filled two days. Then after closing arguments Wednesday morning by Ogeechee Judicial Circuit Assistant District Attorney Renorda Herring and Acting District Attorney Jillian Gibson for the prosecution and by Assistant Public Defender Que’Andra Campbell for Keller, the jury was able to begin deliberations before taking a lunch break.

Back in January 2025, when Campbell, on behalf of chief Public Defender Renata Newbill-Jallow entered Keller’s “not guilty” plea at the arraignment hearing, the defendant was reported to have “harmed himself” and to be “unable to see.”

Mental status

In fact he had physically blinded himself and bitten off a portion of his tongue while in jail custody. The public defenders subsequently filed a motion for a hearing on Keller’s competency to stand trial. Two state-employed, licensed psychologists, Dr. Jeremy Gay and Dr. Daniel Fass, evaluated Keller, and the hearing was held Jan. 27, 2026.
In his ruling filed Feb. 10, Judge Hube concluded that Keller “was not mentally ill at the time of the alleged offenses and is currently competent to stand trial.”

“Dr. Gay testified that he was aware of the Defendant’s self harm (removing his eyeballs) but that factor was not relevant to the evaluation because it happened after the alleged criminal activity for which the Defendant is charged,” is a direct statement from Hube’s written ruling.

Two jailers had also testified during the hearing that Keller “told them he wanted to go to a medical prison, he was not mental …,” the judge noted.

But witnesses established that Keller had a record of illicit drug use, and the defense reportedly acknowledged that he had struggled with addiction and was high on drugs at the time of his encounter with Dupree.

DA’s Office statement

The Statesboro Herald did not have a reporter present at the trial, but reviewed documents filed on the Clerk of Court’s online database and, after hearing that the trial had concluded, asked Lindsay Gribble, Ogeechee Judicial Circuit DA’s Office chief of staff, if anyone there would provide a statement.

“This verdict and sentence reflect the dedicated work of our Major Crimes Team, Acting District Attorney Jillian Gibson and Assistant District Attorney Renorda Herring. Our office is also grateful to GSP, BCSO, EMS, and others who were first to respond to the case and begin the investigation work and the work of the GBI Crime Lab was key in ensuring the state had what it needed to present a strong case to the jury,” Gribble replied in an email Thursday.

“The sentence imposed by the Court appropriately reflects the gravity of the defendant’s offenses,” she continued. “No sentence can restore what was taken from Bruce Dupree’s family, but today’s sentence ensures the defendant will spend the rest of his life in prison and provides a measure of justice for those who loved Mr. Dupree.”