The identity of a man wanted in the brutal stabbing of a DeKalb County woman was unknown for months until a family member turned him in two years ago, authorities said. Convicted Wednesday of multiple charges, the man will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Randy Haynes, 39, of Stone Mountain, was found guilty of murder, felony murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault and possession of a knife during the commission of a felony in the June 2019 killing of 43-year-old Caritha Blanks. Haynes was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus five years to serve consecutively in custody.
A passerby noticed Blanks collapsed on the sidewalk of a busy portion of Memorial Drive just before midnight June 3 and called 911, DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Lisa Myers said in a news release. Blanks had been stabbed eight times in the torso and lower body, Myers said. She was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, where she died.
Although the extent of Haynes and Blanks’ relationship and how they met is unknown by officials, Myers confirmed that Haynes called Blanks several times in the months leading up to the stabbing.
At the scene, detectives realized Blanks had not been attacked where she was found. They used evidence to “backtrack to where she was actually stabbed,” leading them slightly down the road, DeKalb County Detective Drew Collins said at the time.
Footage from the crime scene showed the violent attack and the moments leading up to it. Haynes and Blanks could be seen walking together on Memorial Drive, going off-camera for several minutes behind a building at one point until they reemerged as Haynes repeatedly stabbed the victim, Myers said.
“You see the victim attempting to get away, and then you see the suspect stab (her) at least two times. That is on camera,” Collins said about the attack caught on camera.
DeKalb police sent out some of the footage in hopes the public could identify the suspect. A family member immediately recognized the man and notified police it was Haynes, Myers confirmed.
“We were able to get several leads within the first 24 hours,” Collins said.
Haynes was arrested at his home and officers discovered an active arrest warrant from Cook County, Illinois, Collins said. Detectives interviewed him at the DeKalb County Jail, and Haynes “stated that he was the person in the video,” Collins said. They charged him with murder in late August 2019.
“It feels good. We started this with absolutely nothing,” Collins said at the time. “It was literally just a woman found on the street by a passerby.”
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