Clayton's 'most wanted' captured in Mississippi

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By Megan Matteucci

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Clayton County man will be heading back to Georgia after being captured in Mississippi on murder charges.

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Clayton County Police Police say Russell James Carpenter shot and killed a man in Forest Park on May 10.

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U.S. Marshals arrested Russell James Carpenter, 23, on Friday. They found several handguns in his possession and are investigating to see if one is the murder weapon, said Lt. Brian Crisp, commander of the Clayton County Sheriff’s fugitive squad.

Carpenter, one of the county's most wanted, has been on the run since May when he shot and killed a Forest Park man, deputies said.

Carpenter is charged with killing Chavis Denard Watson, 25, and wounding a 15-year-old.

Watson saw Carpenter fighting with several teenagers outside the Laurel Pointe Apartments on Johnson Road on May 10. Watson attempted to break up the fight and Carpenter opened fire, deputies said.

“He [Watson] was a bystander and trying to break up fight,” said Tony Schilling, supervisory inspector for the Marshals’ Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force.

Shortly after the murder, investigators got information that Carpenter purchased a bus ticket to Jackson, Miss., where he has family, investigators said.

Marshals and Clayton County sheriff’s deputies have spent six months tracking Carpenter, who has prior criminal record.

On Friday, they got a tip that he was inside a home in Jackson.

“We found him and did surveillance until we could get officers in the area and make the arrest,” Schilling said.

Carpenter is being held in the Hinds County (Miss.) jail on charges of murder and aggravated assault. He will be sent back to Clayton this week.

“That’s the good thing with the task force, you really can reach out and touch somebody,” Clayton Sheriff Kem Kimbrough said. “Warrants aren’t supposed to sit in a file. They are supposed to be served."

The arrest is part of Kimbrough’s efforts to serve a backlog of warrants, particularly the suspects listed on the county’s most wanted list.

When Kimbrough took office in January, the sheriff’s department had a backlog of about 20,000 warrants. That was in addition to the about 1,000 warrants that come in each month from new cases.

As of Monday, the backlog had been decreased to about 14,000 Kimbrough said.

“We’ve served about 10,000 warrants so far and we’re working to get more,” he said.

The sheriff’s fugitive squad had eight undercover investigators who work to track the most violent suspects, Crisp said. Carpenter is the 16th suspect from the most wanted list captured. Fourteen suspects remain on the list, including five sex offenders.

Earlier this year, the sheriff ordered all deputies who work administrative jobs to serve warrants.

FBI records show Clayton County ranks sixth in Georgia for the most outstanding felony and serious misdemeanor warrants.