NORTH VERNON — Jennings County Sheriff’s deputies have arrested another suspect in the investigation into the murder of a 23-year-old North Vernon man.
Destiny Bailey, 24, North Vernon, was booked into the Jennings County jail at 1 a.m. Sunday, according to jail records. She is accused of Level 5 felony assisting a criminal, according to the sheriff’s department.
In addition to that arrest, investigators said they have also arrested Frank Bailey and Fashion Ellis, who are being held in Louisville after being detained there since the April 15 murder of Donavon Booker. Booker died of a single gunshot wound to the upper torso in the driveway of a home at 3972 Squire Lakes Blvd. in Country Squire Lakes, investigators said.
Frank Bailey is charged with battery resulting in bodily injury and disorderly conduct, said Jennings County Sheriff Chief Deputy David Turner. Ellis is charged with battery by means of a deadly weapon, Turner said.
Stephon Moore, 30, Louisville, is also being held in Louisville, charged with one count of murder in Booker’s death and two counts of attempted murder in the case, according to court records.
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An autopsy that was completed on Booker last week determined he died from a single gunshot wound to his upper torso, according to Jennings County Coroner Gene Rudicel. Toxicology tests are pending.
Jennings County Sheriff’s Department deputies said Booker was outside the home in Country Squire Lakes with two other individuals when he was shot while standing in the home’s driveway.
Home security cameras filmed the incident, showing Moore exiting from a light-colored, four-door passenger car with three other individuals, according to a probable cause affidavit filed against Moore in Jennings Circuit Court.
The video shows an altercation and a black male with shoulder-length hair described as dreadlocks, later identified as Moore, shooting a pistol at three different male subjects at the Squire Lakes Boulevard address, according to the affidavit.
As for the motive behind the shooting, a witness told detectives that on April 15, Moore had picked up a man identified as Frank Bailey in a silver Chrysler 200, with a female driving the vehicle, the probable cause affidavit states. A man later identified as Moore was a passenger, according to the affidavit. According to the witness, after Frank Bailey got in the back seat of the vehicle, within a few minutes, the witness heard gunshots coming from the area where Booker was shot, the affidavit states.
The witness told detectives that Frank Bailey had gone to the Squire Lakes Boulevard address earlier and made statements that he had been jumped earlier by four people at the residence for supposedly touching a woman named “Trinity,” court affidavits state.
Witnesses told investigators that the shooting was about leaving a girl alone, which turned into a “big ordeal.”
Keith Rutherford, who lives two doors down from where the shooting occurred and attempted to render first aid to Booker on Monday night, said the disagreement about the girl did not involve the victim and that Booker was “just a bystander” when he was killed.
