A Kennesaw teenager is in jail on felony murder charges after police said he shot two men to death in a Lawrenceville-area home.
Gwinnett County police arrested 19-year-old Steven Thanh Tran on Friday, the day after the victims’ bodies were discovered in the lower level of a home on Racquet Club Circle. Julian Talbo, 20, of Lawrenceville, and An Ha, 23, of Grayson, were found by a friend. Both had gunshot wounds.
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The friend called police, and officers arrived at the scene about 8 p.m. Thursday.
Gwinnett homicide investigators said Monday the motive behind the shooting appears to be drug-related. No other details were released.
Tran was arrested in Cobb County on felony drug charges 10 days before the double homicide in Gwinnett, booking records show.
On April 6, he was arrested after a Cobb officer found a red Tupperware container containing suspected marijuana in the center console of his 2017 Lexus RX350, his arrest warrant states. In addition to the marijuana, the officer located a digital scale, $298 cash, 46 green tablets resembling Xanax and a white bottle containing Codeine, according to police.
“The said accused uttered that he was selling the drugs that I found in the vehicle to his friends,” the officer stated in the arrest warrant.
Tran was arrested on three felony drug charges and booked into the Cobb jail. He was released the next day on his own recognizance, booking records show.
He was then arrested by Cobb deputies Friday afternoon at his home on Nemours Trail and later transferred to the Gwinnett jail, where he is being held without bond. In addition to two counts of felony murder, he faces three counts of aggravated assault.
In February 2019, Tran was arrested in Cobb on a drug charge but avoided prosecution by entering a pre-trial diversion program, court records show.
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