DALLAS, Ga. — A Paulding County judge has scheduled an execution for a man convicted of the 2001 killing a woman and her 3-year-old daughter.
The judge ruled Thursday that Nicholas Cody Tate will be put to death between Jan. 31 and Feb. 7. State officials have not yet determined the date of the execution.
A spokeswoman for the Georgia Attorney General's office declined comment.
Tate's case moved relatively quickly through the death penalty appeals process because he has yet to challenge his death sentence by filing a habeas appeal.
Tate pleaded guilty in 2005 to murdering 26-year-old Chrissie Williams and her daughter, Katelyn Williams, four years earlier at their Dallas, Ga., home.
Authorities said Williams had been shot in the head and was bound to a bed with handcuffs. Her daughter was found naked on the floor of another room with her throat slit, authorities said.
Tate was indicted in multiple charges in February 2002 in connection with the deaths.
His two younger brothers, Dustin and Chad, previously admitted to committing the murders. They both are serving life sentences.
Authorities said the trio fled Georgia after the killings and traveled to Mississippi where they kidnapped a 23-year-old woman from the gas station where she worked. They forced the woman in her Jeep Grand Cherokee and headed north.
Later, the brothers released the woman but kept her car.
The Tate brothers abandoned their weapons at a motel in Shawnee, Okla., and drove to El Reno, Okla., which is about 30 miles west of Oklahoma City. The three contacted their parents in Dallas, Ga., who called police.
County authorities then negotiated their surrender by phone over several hours.
At the time of the killings, Tate was 21, Dustin Tate was 18 and Chad Tate was 15.