Accused shooter now faces murder charges after store shooting victim dies

A 40-year-old Macon man now faces a murder charge in the death of a man shot in the head in the parking lot of a convenience store Monday afternoon.

Calvin Stapleton turned himself in to Bibb County sheriff’s investigators about 11 hours after Andre Jamar Taylor was mortally wounded outside the M&M Grocery convenience store at 2760 Montpelier Avenue.

Taylor, 39, was pronounced dead at 3:10 p.m. Tuesday at Medical Center, Navicent Health, Bibb County coroner Leon Jones said.

An investigator testified in Magistrate Court earlier in the afternoon that Taylor was shot “execution style” as he tried to walk away during an argument.

Taylor was the father of former Stratford Academy and current University of Wisconsin football player Quintez Cephus.

As doctors were trying to save Taylor’s life, Cephus tweeted his love for his father about seven hours after the shooting.

Taylor’s friends who gathered at the store Tuesday said he was always talking about Cephus and the expectation that his son would one day be playing in the NFL.

Monday’s witnesses in the store parking lot between Pansy and Poppy avenues said Stapleton, who is known to people around Unionville as “Cut,” pulled out a pistol and shot Taylor in the back of the head before running way toward Brentwood Avenue.

A long, black splint on his right arm helped investigators identify Stapleton, who was caught on surveillance cameras.

He originally had been charged with criminal attempt to commit murder and criminal street gang activity at the time of his arrest.

He is being held without bond in the Bibb County jail.

This story was originally published April 5, 2017 at 11:43 AM with the headline "Accused shooter now faces murder charges after store shooting victim dies."