Deputies found one man bloodied on a porch and homeowner Joshua Addison mortally wounded inside the residence, authorities said.
DALLAS, Ga. — The emergency call came from a woman who had been moving into a Paulding County home with her husband. Inside the residence, she had found homeowner Joshua Michael Addison badly wounded. In the 911 call, as later reported by local media, she identified her husband as the attacker. Deputies arrived to find a blood-covered man on the back porch and Addison suffering from multiple stab wounds inside. Addison, 37, died after being taken to a hospital, and authorities arrested the woman’s husband, 37-year-old Jacob B. Brady.
The call and the scene encountered by deputies form the clearest publicly available starting point in a case that investigators say grew out of an argument during an unusually generous housing arrangement. Addison had agreed to allow Brady and his wife to move into his home without paying rent while the couple tried to regain their footing, Addison’s relatives said. Rather than a dispute involving established paying tenants, authorities described the episode as violence erupting on the day the couple was moving in. The reason for the argument has not been publicly explained, leaving a significant gap between the family’s account of Addison’s offer and the fatal encounter inside his house.
According to reporting based on information from the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were first sent to the 300 block of Amsterdam Way at about 9:43 p.m. July 19 after a report that someone was performing CPR. The dispatch information changed as they traveled to the house, indicating a possible stabbing. Officers arriving in the Windmill Creek neighborhood encountered a man on the back porch whose clothing or body was covered in blood. Deputies directed him off the porch and detained him. A search of the house led them to Addison, who had been stabbed several times. Fire and emergency medical personnel transported him for treatment, but he did not survive.
Brady’s wife had discovered Addison and contacted emergency dispatchers, authorities said. Law&Crime reported that a 911 recording obtained by WXIA captured her telling the dispatcher, “My husband attacked him with a knife.” She remained with Addison until first responders arrived, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. No report reviewed for this story says she was accused of a crime. Authorities have also not publicly described whether she saw the confrontation itself, entered the room only afterward or provided investigators with a more extensive account. Her identity has not been released in the news reports, and there is no basis in the available material to identify her.
Investigators said Brady and his wife were moving into Addison’s residence when an argument developed between the two men. Officials described it as a verbal disagreement that turned violent but released little about its subject or sequence. There has been no verified public account establishing who spoke first, how the disagreement escalated or whether anyone else saw the beginning of the confrontation. Authorities have likewise not announced a motive. Those omissions matter in a criminal case: the dramatic facts visible when deputies arrived do not by themselves explain what happened in the minutes beforehand, and prosecutors would have to prove any charged offense with admissible evidence.
What brought the couple to the house was described more fully by Addison’s family. Relatives told local media that Brady had recently left jail and that he and his wife were going through a rough period and needed somewhere to live. Addison agreed to let them stay in his home rent-free until they could secure a more permanent situation. His family presented that offer not as an isolated decision but as part of a larger pattern. Addison’s mother, Ann Gazell, told WXIA that he cared deeply about people who had little and would give what he had to try to help someone else.
The charging picture was less uniform across the first reports. A July 22 account citing the Sheriff’s Office said Brady had been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and cruelty to children. FOX 5 Atlanta and Law&Crime later reported a murder charge along with aggravated assault. Law&Crime said Brady was being held in the Paulding County Jail without bond. The public reports reviewed for this article do not include a complete later charging instrument that reconciles every count. For that reason, the earlier child-cruelty charge and the later murder reporting are best understood as separate snapshots of a developing investigation rather than as a single verified final list of charges.
The child-related count in the early report raises questions that authorities had not publicly answered. Georgia’s third-degree cruelty-to-children statute can apply when a person who is the primary aggressor allows a child under 18 to witness certain violent crimes or commits such an act knowing that a child is present and sees or hears it. The report that listed the charge did not identify the child, state the child’s relationship to anyone in the home or say where the child was during the alleged attack. There is also no public information in the reviewed reports explaining whether that count remained active after the homicide investigation developed.
Aggravated assault under Georgia law can include an assault carried out with a deadly weapon or an object likely to cause serious injury. Later reports said Brady was accused of murder following Addison’s death. Those allegations have not been adjudicated in the material reviewed for this story, and no conviction should be inferred from the arrest or the statements made by police. The available reports did not identify a defense attorney speaking for Brady, a plea or a scheduled trial. They also did not say whether a grand jury had considered the homicide case. Law&Crime reported that a next court date was not immediately listed at the time of its July 23 story.
Outside the criminal investigation, Addison’s family and friends began documenting the life they said was lost. A fundraiser organized on behalf of his mother described him as a devoted father, friend and creative person who frequently made space for people and animals needing help. It said Addison and his former partner worked together to provide a good life for their teenage daughter. The fundraiser was created to assist with funeral expenses, repairs to Addison’s home and future college costs for his daughter. Its description emphasized that opening his home to others was characteristic of Addison, making the circumstances surrounding Brady’s move into the house especially painful for those close to him.
Addison’s obituary supplied details not contained in the police account. He was born July 30, 1988, and lived in Dallas, Georgia. His family included his daughter, parents, stepfather, former spouse and numerous siblings, nieces, nephews and extended relatives. The obituary said he took pride in his work as a meat cutter and had particular experience in deer processing. It described him as loyal to friends, gentle with animals and committed to family. A funeral service was held July 28 at Woodstock City Church. His interment was private, separating the family’s mourning from a criminal case that remained unresolved.
The violence also drew the attention of neighbors who watched police, firefighters and an ambulance converge on the residential street. Darrell Westveer told FOX 5 Atlanta that he saw numerous police vehicles and officers with guns drawn and said an incident like that was not something he expected so close to his home. His account helps establish the scale of the emergency response but does not answer the central evidentiary questions. Investigators have not publicly released a detailed reconstruction of the confrontation, and no available report provides surveillance footage, an independent eyewitness account of the stabbing or a statement from Brady describing his version of events.
As of Aug. 27, no later reliable public report located for this article had established a plea, trial date or disposition. The 911 call remains one of the most consequential pieces of publicly reported evidence because it brought authorities to the house and included Brady’s wife identifying her husband as having attacked Addison. Even that statement, however, is evidence to be evaluated through the criminal process rather than a substitute for it. Brady is accused of killing the man who had offered him and his wife temporary shelter; the precise cause of their argument and the full current status of every reported charge remain publicly unresolved.
Author note: Last updated Aug. 27, 2026.