Grand jury decides on robbery charges tied to murder suspect Lee

Published 11:42 pm Thursday, August 2, 2012

By Fred Guarino

The Selma Times-Journal

 

HAYNEVILLE — A Lowndes County grand jury has indicted triple-murder suspect Deandra Marquis Lee on an unrelated charge of theft of property first degree.

Lee is accused of killing three people in Lowndes County including 9-year-old twins Jordan and Taylor Dejerinett and their 73-year-old caretaker Jack Mac Girdner.

The theft of property first charge is unrelated to the murder charges said Lowndes County District Attorney Charlotte M. Tesmer. She said it is a Class B felony that has to do with the taking of property from the person of another.

It has to do with an original July 2011 charge Tesmer said.

A $10,000 bond in Lowndes County on a third degree robbery charge against Lee when he was captured in Selma after a four-day manhunt (following the murders) was revoked by District Court Judge Adrian D. Johnson at an earlier court appearance.

“The original charge was robbery third, which was a Class C felony, so it bumped it up a class,” Tesmer said. “The grand jury just felt that that was the best charge for that. It didn’t have anything to do with the three murders.”

Tesmer said she was “still waiting on the ABI (Alabama Bureau of Investigation) to get me their complete information on the capital case (the murders). And we will go forward when I get that information. Could be a specially called grand jury or, of course, we could always present it at the next regularly scheduled grand jury, which is about six months for now.”

On Monday, July 2, Johnson bound Lee over to the grand jury, finding probable cause on three counts of murder after hearing testimony from ABI Special Agent Matt Bowman.

The grand jury met July 16.

Lee is being held in the Lowndes County Jail on a $3 million cash bond, $1 million for each murder charge.