One Columbus man was free and two others were charged with probation violations after capital murder charges against them were dropped Friday.
Quinton Deangelo Harris, 19, of 1008 22nd St. S.; Alexander Demonta Brown, 18, of 225 Taylor St.; and Khalid Roby, 18, of 109 Poplar St., were charged last week in the May 20 murder of William Stallings, 19, of 307 Hospital Drive, Apt. 5.
Brown”s family said they found out the charges against the men had been dropped only after Harris was released from the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center.
“We weren”t told the charges had got dropped,” said Jackie Brown, Alexander Brown”s mother. “When they released Quinton, Quinton told us the charges had been dropped.”
Harris said he was given little explanation on his way out.
“They told me to get my stuff, that I”m fixing to go,” said Harris Saturday while visiting the Browns” home on Taylor Street. “They told me somebody confessed to (the murder).”
Brown and Roby remain in custody due to possible probation violations. Both were on probation for a previous conviction for grand larceny. Roby allegedly failed a drug screen following his arrest Monday and Brown may face weapons charges stemming from guns recovered at his home when he was arrested.
Lowndes County Sheriff”s Office detective Eli Perrigin, the lead investigator on the case, said Saturday he was not at liberty to comment on the case. Sheriff Butch Howard and Chief Deputy Greg Wright could not be reached on their cellular phones.
Perrigin said he expected a press release on the case to be issued Tuesday.
The Columbus Packet reported on its website Saturday that up to five men from Alabama have been arrested in connection to Stallings” murder and transferred to Lowndes County. According to The Packet, at least one man has confessed to the killing.
The families of the accused Columbus men have expressed outrage since their arrests Monday, insisting they are innocent.
Harris has lived with Brown and his family for approximately the past year and Jackie Brown claims that on the night of Stallings” murder, Harris was in his bedroom and Alexander Brown was asleep on the living room couch. She said she knows this for a fact because one of her nephews, who works late, stopped by around 2 a.m. Friday morning and she had to unlock the living room door to let him in since everyone else was asleep and didn”t hear him knocking. She was forced to get up again around 3 a.m. and turn the television off after her nephew left and saw her son still asleep on the couch.
The 911 call reporting Stallings” shooting on Harrison Road in Lowndes County was received around 3:15 a.m. Friday morning.
Jackie Brown said she couldn”t speak for Roby”s whereabouts because her son and Roby were not allowed to associate with one another as a condition of their probation. If her son is convicted of violating his probation for possessing a gun, she said he may be forced to serve the 10-year sentence which was suspended at the time of his conviction for grand larceny.
However, Brown”s father, Alexander Brown Sr., a preacher at Greater Mt. Zion Church, claimed possession of all the guns confiscated by sheriff”s deputies.
“I told them that day when they came in that the gun was mine,” said Alexander Brown Sr. Saturday. “They said the gun was in his room. I told them that was not his room, it was my oldest son”s room. They said that didn”t matter, that it was still in his possession.”
Since their sons” arrest, the Browns and Harris” mother, Shronda Green, say they still have been presented with no evidence incriminating their children in Stallings” murder.
“Eli kept repeating that he had evidence but that he can”t discuss it,” said Green.
Harris said he was told by investigators that a shoeprint was found at the scene of the murder and that his shoes were checked. He said investigators also took an oral swab sample from him.
“I knew I didn”t have nothing to do with it, so I wasn”t even going to worry about it,” he said.
Harris and Brown had experienced friction with Stallings in the past, but Harris said any bad feelings had long since been resolved.
Michael Love, Stallings friend and resident of the home where Stallings was murdered, said he and Stallings had “been cool for years” with Harris and Brown.
“I wouldn”t think they would do that. That”s what I told the sheriff,” Love said Saturday, although he acknowledged he didn”t see the faces of the three men who shot Stallings.
Stallings” funeral was held Saturday in Columbus.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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