3 indicted on murder charges in Ala.
The sisters’ bodies were dumped off a bridge in Rome, though evidence points to their being killed in Alabama.
Three Rome men accused of killing two half sisters in May 2020 and dumping their bodies off a bridge near Grizzard Park have been indicted on murder charges in Alabama.
Desmond Brown and Devin Watts have been indicted on a capital murder charge and Christopher Pullen with murder in Cherokee County, Alabama. The men are accused of killing Vanita Nicole Richardson and Truvenia Campbell over a misplaced wallet and dumping their bodies off a bridge in Rome.
The case was moved to Alabama after evidence pointed to the actual killings happening just over the state line.
The difference between capital murder and murder is that Brown and Watts could potentially face the death penalty in Alabama for the shooting deaths of the two women.
While the men still face numerous charges in Floyd County, the case in Floyd County Superior Court has been placed on the dead docket to allow for prosecution to proceed in Alabama.
Cellphone records and statements given to investigators showed the five people drove to Alabama and somewhere along the road back to Rome, Brown pulled over.
Eventually they got back into the car, but Brown pulled over again and ordered the women to get out at gunpoint,
GBI Special Agent Ghee Wilson testified during a December 2020 preliminary hearing. He wanted to search the women, believing they stole his wallet earlier at a party at his home. Campbell put up a fight.
Wilson testified that Brown shot her several times and then shot the younger sister, Richardson, as she attempted to comply.
The men put the women’s bodies into the trunk of the Volkswagen and made a few more stops, Wilson testified. One was to sell synthetic marijuana at the Callier Forest Apartments before throwing the women’s bodies off the 411 bridge.
Early on the morning of May 13, 2020, GDOT crews prepared to do bridge inspections. One the many bridges the transportation agency was tasked with inspecting was on the East Rome Bypass near Grizzard Park, where they found the bodies.
After the bodies were found, the three men fled Rome and traveled to Atlanta with several other men. All the men involved were arrested a few days later on other charges and held in jail.
On July 23, 2020, Rome Police Chief Denise Downer-McKinney alongside GBI Director Vic Reynolds announced murder charges had been filed against the three men.
While Pullen is being held without bond for Floyd County he was granted a $750,000 bond in Alabama. Bond for Brown and Watts has been denied in both locations.