Two men were indicted on murder charges in connection with a Clayton County shooting death and home invasion that led to a dangerous three-car chase.
Police say LaJuante Stephens and Damien Hurrell Heard killed James Daniel Evers while holding Donald Evers, Sr. hostage in the garage of James Evers Rock Cut Road home.
A Clayton County grand jury last week charged Stephens and Heard with murder, felony murder, false imprisonment, armed robbery and multiple counts of aggravated assault and gun possession during the commission of a crime for the April 4, 2013 incident.
According to a police affidavit obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Donald Evers was met by two armed men when he went into the garage at the home in the 1700 block of Rock Cut Road.
The men bound Donald Evers with duct tape and demanded money and drugs, and one left to join a third person outside. The one remaining in the garage with Donald Evers made a phone call, the affidavit said.
“We are in phase one and have one tied up in the garage,” the home invader, unidentified in the affidavit, said into his cell phone, Donald Evers told police.
James Evers was outside his home at the time talking to Charles Emmons and Ashley Fordham in the driveway, according to the affidavit..
James Evers went into the garage, and a single gunshot was heard, according to the affidavit.
Police said James Evers had been shot in the head.
When Emmons walked to the garage, the affidavit said an armed man emerged and shot at him and at Fordham.
Fordham and Emmons got into a black GMC Yukon and fled, and the two armed men ran to a stolen green Mercury Mountaineer idling nearby and gave chase, according to the police affidavit.
John Elledge, who was parked at a grocery store across the street from the home, heard the gunfire and saw the chase began and followed the green SUV, police said in the affidavit.
When the Mercury turned onto a cul de sac and turned around, police said it drove toward Elledge’s pick-up truck and someone inside opened fire.
Elledge backed up to escape the shooting and hit a minivan, police said.
Police found the Mercury at the Atlanta address where it had been stolen. It had been set on fire, police said.
Investigators were able to use cell phone towers and video to identify Stephens and Heard, police said.
Police arrested Stephens roughly a month later. Heard was arrested in July.
Both remain in the Clayton County Jail. Bond is set for Heard at roughly $60,000. Stephens is being held on $220,800 bond, according to jail records.
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