Former Madison Co Sheriff’s Deputy Gets Life for 2019 Murder

A former deputy for the Madison County Sheriff’s Office will spend the rest of his life in prison for the murder of a University of Georgia student.

34-year-old Winford Trey Adams the Third was sentenced to life in prison Monday in Clarke County Superior Court for the November 2019 murder of 26-year-old Benjamin Lloyd Cloer.

According to a report in the Athens-Banner Herald, Adams entered guilty pleas to felony murder and aggravated assault and in a negotiated sentence, Judge Lisa Lott imposed a life sentence along with a concurrent 10-year prison term for the assault.

The plea was negotiated through the prosecutor’s office with defense lawyers Jimmy Webb of Elberton and Mayes Davison of Royston.

Adams will be eligible for parole in 30 years. In court, Adams, expressed remorse for the crime.

Cloer was a graduate student at UGA and was three weeks away from earning a degree in artificial intelligence.

According to authorities, Adams believed Cloer was having an affair with Adam’s wife Charlotte and followed her to his house.

Cloer was having a cookout with friends when Adams entered the house with a gun and shot him twice in the back as he tried to run. He died later at a hospital.

Adams, who was living in Comer at the time, had worked for the sheriff’s office for slightly more than a year, and for about three years previously at the Statesboro Police Department.

He was off duty at the time of the slaying. Adams will be eligible for parole in 30 years.