A bizarre case grew even stranger Thursday as Norcross police announced the arrest of a seventh suspect in the Feb. 2 slaying of 15-year-old Nicholas Jackson.
Darrez Lamontz Chandler, of Atlanta, was charged with murder and burglary Wednesday and is being held with the other six suspects in the Gwinnett County Detention Center.
Though Norcross police spokesman Brian Harr said investigators do not believe Chandler was present when Jackson was shot in the basement of his parents' home, they've classified the 31-year-old as an "active participant" in the murder.
Police are not ready to disclose who or what led them to Chandler -- who served 20 months in prison from 2005-06 for aggravated assault and stalking -- as it may hamper the investigation, Harr said.
Jackson, a standout fullback/linebacker who was playing on Norcross High's varsity squad as a freshman, was shot in the heart during an apparent robbery gone awry at his family's Autry Street home near Holcomb Bridge Road.
The teen and his sister, Nikia Jackson, 17, were at home by themselves at the time of the break-in.
It's still not clear why the alleged suspects, all from the metro area, targeted the Jackson's home. At their probable cause hearing in February, each of the six men then in custody offered varying accounts as to what led them to Norcross that day.
The youngest of the six, 19-year-old Rico West, told investigators the group was en route to the Mall of Georgia. Another said they got lost looking for Ga. 400, while two of the suspects said they had driven a rental van to Gwinnett to pick up the other four after they had encountered car trouble.
Only one, 36-year-old Jason Dozier, acknowledged possible culpability in Jackson’s death, telling detectives they were "on the right track" as they shared their theory of what led to the break-in, Norcross Police Sgt. Bill Grogan testified at the hearing.
When the men were apprehended minutes after the shooting, officers discovered nearly $20,000 in cash in their minivan, though the victim’s father told police only $600 to $700 was missing from his son’s room.
“Why are they doing a home invasion when they have $19,600 in cash on them already?” defense attorney Dennis Scheib said in February.
It's not known which of the men actually shot Jackson but, according to Grogan's testimony, Dozier may have implicated himself. After being informed police were taking gunshot residue tests, he buried his head in his hands and told fellow suspect Timothy Johnson, 34, “That’s it for me, bro," said Grogan.
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