Authorities believe two women were killed and dumped off a northwest Georgia bridge in May because one of the suspects accused the victims of stealing his wallet, according to the Rome News-Tribune.
A Georgia Department of Transportation crew discovered the bodies of Vanita Nicole Richardson, 18, and her close friend, 31-year-old Truvenia Clarece Campbell, underneath an overpass on the banks of the Etowah River in Rome on May 13, AJC.com previously reported. Both women had bags tied over their heads when they were found, a police report indicated.
The GBI said they later located Richardson’s 1997 Toyota Corolla at an undisclosed location in South Fulton. The vehicle had been missing since the double homicide.
Days after the bodies were found, the GBI arrested 28-year-old Desmond Lavonta Brown and 36-year-old Devin Lashawn Watts. A third suspect, 23-year-old Christopher Leedarius Pullen, was arrested in July and all three face murder charges, according to authorities.
According to the newspaper, GBI Special Agent Ghee Wilson testified that Brown claimed to have lost his wallet after a birthday party in Alabama and accused the two women of stealing it. The three suspects then lured Richardson and Campbell into a car and confronted them during the ride back to Rome, he said.
Wilson also testified that once the women were ordered onto the side of the road, Brown searched them at gunpoint and eventually shot Campbell when she resisted, the News-Tribune reported. Wilson said Campbell was shot twice more before Richardson was also shot two times, and their bodies were dumped off the bridge.
Wilson also reported that the men left Richardson’s vehicle ablaze in a wooded area in Union City.
When Watts’ attorney asked Wilson whether anyone admitted to the homicide, the investigator said no. Instead, the suspects accused each other.
“Watts blamed Brown and Pullen for the shootings, while Pullen blamed Brown and Watts,” Wilson said.
Wilson said while the three suspects and four fellow gang members were driving from Rome to Atlanta the morning after the shooting, Brown’s mother called to say that she found his wallet behind a TV in the living room, the newspaper reported.
Wilson said Watts later led authorities to the car. Police found the women’s DNA in the trunk where their bodies were placed.
The case will now go to a grand jury.
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