Spalding County head football coach charged with murder denied bond

By Jennifer Lifsey

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    GRIFFIN, Georgia (WANF) — A Spalding County football coach charged with murder will remain in jail.

Carl Kearney, Jr., 43, of Griffin, was denied bond Tuesday in Maryland. Police say he confessed to strangling his girlfriend, identified as 38-year-old Patrina Best, and killing her at her home in Maryland.

Kearney has been the head varsity football coach at Spalding High School since 2020. He played football for Georgia Southern University in the early 2000s and is credited for helping to turn around Spalding High’s football program. He recently won Georgia High School Football Daily’s Class 4A coaches award for the most improved winning team in Class 4A.

Atlanta News First dug into some court records and found that Kearney was arrested back in 2015 in Florida for domestic violence, and those charges ended up getting dropped.

So far, Spalding High School has not commented on the charges.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the Prince George’s County Police Department’s Homicide Unit at (301) 516-2512.

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