A man is charged with murder after police said he slipped into a Newnan home early Thursday and stabbed his half-brother to death while he slept.
Zachary Lamar Martin was standing in the bedroom holding two knives when Newnan police arrived at the house on Linden Drive just after 3:30 a.m., spokeswoman Ashley Copeland said in a news release. A man, identified later as Sheldon Odell Stewart, was lying on the bed and appeared to have been stabbed twice in the back.
Newnan investigators said Martin entered the home through a basement window in the back of the residence.
A man was sleeping in the basement at the time, Copeland said. Martin got zip ties from a tool bag near the window and tied him up, according to police.
Then, he got two knives, headed upstairs and came across a woman watching TV in the living room, Copeland said. Investigators said he forced her to go downstairs at knifepoint.
Somehow, the man who had been tied up in the basement got free and ran to a nearby bathroom, according to police. Martin allegedly chased him and started stabbing the bathroom door “in an attempt to assault him,” Copeland said. When Martin couldn’t get into the bathroom, he ran upstairs into the bedroom where Stewart and his girlfriend were asleep.
Copeland said Martin crawled over the girlfriend and started stabbing his sleeping half-brother. Then, he turned and choked the girlfriend and held a knife to her throat, according to police.
The other people in the house heard the girlfriend screaming and ran into the room to pull Martin off her, Copeland said. The girlfriend then got a cellphone and called police.
Stewart was taken to a hospital, where he died of his injuries.
Police said Stewart’s girlfriend was previously in a relationship with Martin. The couple dated for more than two years and had broken up within the past two months, officials said.
Martin was arrested on multiple charges, including murder, kidnapping and home invasion, Copeland said.
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