An Atlanta deejay out on bond pending murder charges was arrested Monday on criminal trespassing charges, according to Channel 2 Action News.
Security at a Rockmart business called police when they found Andre Jason Pugh, known professionally as DJ Awesome, at his girlfriend’s place of work two weeks ago, Officer Kevin Montgomery, of Rockmart, said in court.
Pugh was found near an employee’s car that had a large screw was found nearby, according to Channel 2.
The screw’s point was angled up toward the tire with the head down on the pavement, Montgomery testified in court. He said he believed Pugh was trying to sabotage the car.
The Fulton County prosecutor said Pugh violated the condition of his bond by traveling outside of Atlanta, according to Channel 2. The judge will decide Tuesday whether or not to revoke his bond, which was granted in December 2014.
He and Adrian Harley, his alleged accomplice, spent less than a month in Fulton County jail on charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to commit first degree burglary.
Despite serious charges, neither man has a significant criminal history and their lawyers argued they were arrested on circumstantial evidence that, while suspicious, is not definitive.
Magistrate Karen Woodson set special conditions for the bonds. She required them to surrender their passports — Harley has family in England and Pugh has traveled internationally — and wear a monitoring device. They also have a 24-hour curfew except for work.
Pugh, a New York native, worked as a DJ at Club Onyx on Cheshire Bridge Road at the time of his arrest for allegedly hiring someone to kill Pugh's wife, Lt. Cliff Chandler with the East Point Police Department previously told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Tiffany Pugh was found murdered on Nov. 23, 2014, after Pugh called 911 to report that his wife had been killed.
She had been shot twice, once in the torso and once through the eye. Their 2-year-old son was straddling her body when police found her. East Point police Sgt. Allyn Glover testified Dec. 22, 2014 that the child said he was trying to wake his mother up. The couple’s 7-year-old daughter was upstairs when police arrived.
Pugh told police his lifelong friend hugged him at the northeast Atlanta strip club and said, "I killed your wife," Glover testified. Harley is a co-defendant who told police he was at Club Onyx, then his Alpharetta home the day of the shooting.
The next day, a Fulton County judge granted him and an alleged accomplice $235,000 bonds due in part to a lack of eyewitness or forensic evidence — such as fingerprints or ballistics.
“Even in a heinous case, there ought to be evidence,” argued Gary Spencer, attorney for Harley, to the judge. “Circumstantial evidence is supposed to rule out the other reasonable possibilities. … Confusion does not equal probable cause.”
Pugh's account of what happened to Tiffany Nicole Jackson-Pugh immediately raised questions, according to the police report.
When the 911 operator asked him if he had entered his home to check on his wife, Pugh said no. He said an alarm company had reported a possible break in, the police reported. Pugh, who worked all night as disc jockey, told the alarm company to turn the alarm off because he was afraid it would wake his children, Glover said.
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