Murder suspect stabbed man over sale price of cellphone, warrants say

Mario Jordan, a father of three, was taken to the hospital, where medical personnel pronounced him dead, Atlanta police said.

Credit: John Spink

Credit: John Spink

Mario Jordan, a father of three, was taken to the hospital, where medical personnel pronounced him dead, Atlanta police said.

A man arrested on a murder charge in Atlanta last week is accused of stabbing an acquaintance to death after the two got into an argument about the sale price of a cellphone, according to his arrest warrants.

Darrell Burnette, 53, was taken into custody at the scene of the stabbing in the 200 block of Ted Turner Drive, a Fulton County arrest warrant shows. Burnette told officers he had stabbed 33-year-old Mario Jordan, a father of three, because of a dispute over the price of a phone he’d agreed to buy, the warrant said.

When officers arrived at the scene Thursday just after 12:45 a.m., Jordan was suffering from a stab wound to the chest, Atlanta police said. He was taken to the hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

In addition to Burnette’s confession, an officer wrote in his arrest affidavit that investigators were able to get video footage of the incident from a security camera in the area.

According to the warrant, the video showed Burnette chasing Jordan around his car and stabbing him multiple times. Burnette also had blood on his clothes and hands, and a knife was recovered at the scene, the warrant said.

Burnette was taken to Atlanta police headquarters to be interviewed, according to his warrants, then booked into the Fulton jail. He remains there without bond on charges of murder, aggravated assault and possession of a knife during the commission of a felony, online records show.

Jordan had celebrated his 33rd birthday less than a week earlier and had three children, his mother-in-law Stacy Wright told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

At the time, Wright told the AJC she wasn’t sure if the killing was over money, but said, “It wasn’t enough to take somebody’s life regardless.”