A 17-year-old man wanted in a Bibb County murder was located and arrested on Camelot Road as the result of the search for a missing Jones County juvenile.
Darrell Stanley was found in the vehicle containing the 14-year-old runaway June 13.
Jones County Sheriff’s Office Investigator John Simmons said three others were in the vehicle. Stanley was arrested without incident.
Simmons said the break in the case was the identifying information of the vehicle that picked up the juvenile June 11 in a Jones County neighborhood. With that information, they were able to find the location of the Stanley and the runaway using that vehicle data in addition to pinging the juvenile’s phone. “We just waited for them,” Simmons said.
JCSO Sgt. Thomas Sullivan received the first report of the missing juvenile at 8 p.m. June 12. He said he met with the mother and grandmother of the 14-year-old in the lobby of the Jones County Law Enforcement Center. Sullivan took their information and contacted JCSO Investigator Lt. Kenny Gleaton, who was on call. He said Gleaton instructed him to put in a request to ping the phone and have the missing juvenile’s information posted to social media.
The 14-year-old’s Cash-App transactions indicted their location in Byron. Officers in Byron attempted to locate the juvenile at the pinged location without success.
Sullivan said a neighbor of the 14-year-old saw the Facebook post and provided two videos of the juvenile being picked up by a dark sedan. The sergeant turned the case over to Simmons and Lt. Kasey Carr the next morning for further investigation.
Carr’s report said they started by checking Flock cameras. He said a car with that description was found at Ranchers and identified the tag number of the black Camry. He said he was sitting at Upper River Road when he saw a car fitting the description and saw the juvenile in the passenger seat.
The lieutenant notified dispatch four people were in the vehicle. He said he followed the Camry and initiated a traffic stop when backup arrived. Carr said he was familiar with Stanley and knew he had outstanding warrants.
Jones County Sheriff Butch Reece announced Stanley’s arrest in a June 13 Facebook post. He said the vehicle containing a reported runaway juvenile was located and stopped with the wanted man inside.
“Inside the vehicle was Darrell Stanley of Macon, who was quickly identified as having active warrants, including one for murder in Bibb County and another for vehicle theft in Jones County. Stanley was taken into custody without incident and turned over to Bibb County authorities. The juvenile was safely returned to their family,” he said. “We’re proud of the swift and coordinated efforts of our deputies and investigators to keep our community safe.”
Simmons said Jones County put a hold on Stanley, who is wanted here for a stolen vehicle charge.
According to a press release from the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office, Stanley was the second of three suspects arrested in the June 5 murder of Marcus Cunningham Jr. A 16-year-old was the first suspect arrested for the crime, and a third suspect, Alfonso Jose Hyman, was arrested June 17.
A release from Bibb County Coroner Leon Jones stated Cunningham was shot and killed in his apartment at 6:30 p.m. June 5. He said no one else was injured in the shooting.
