Double slaying south of Hawkinsville involved ‘dope deal’; suspect has prison record

A double-homicide investigation stretched through at least three counties Tuesday after an apparent middle-of-the-night drug deal went bad on a dirt road south of Hawkinsville.

The bodies of two men in their 20s were found on a rural road in Pulaski County. A car believed to be involved was abandoned in Warner Robins and a suspect was captured near downtown Macon.

Shortly after midnight, Pulaski County deputies found the dead men in the south end of the county off Sandridge Church Road near Woods Road, and called in the GBI from Eastman.

Coroner Fred Clark identified the victims as Kelvin Jurand Thompson, 22, of Patrol Road in Forsyth, and Robdreckious Jamal Quainton, 23, of Leisure Lake Drive in Warner Robins.

One of the bodies was found at the edge of a pond on Sandridge Church Road and the other near the entrance to a church near the corner of Woods Road.

Clark declined to say how the two were killed, pending autopsies.

About 8 a.m., Macon-Bibb County E-911 received a call from a relative of 24-year-old Dennis Penix, a suspect in the killing.

Sheriff’s deputies with guns fanned out along High, Walnut and College streets after Penix was seen running from 963 High St.

Tracking dogs helped in the search and local schools were notified of the potential threat of a dangerous individual trying to avoid capture.

Deputies found Penix just after 10 a.m. and arrested him with the help of the GBI and U.S. Marshals.

Later in the day, Pulaski Sheriff Danny Brannen said Penix and the two victims had been “doing some kind of drug deal” on a country road that lies about 6 miles south of Hawkinsville, a couple of miles west of the Ocmulgee River.

“I talked to (Penix) and that’s what he told me,” Brannen said.

Thompson and Quainton, he said, were shot with a 9mm pistol and had at least at some point been riding with Penix in the same vehicle.

The sheriff went on to say that Penix, when questioned after his arrest, told him what kind of drugs were involved.

“I didn’t understand what he said,” Brannen said, “and I wasn’t familiar with it.”

Brannen added, “Evidently they’ve had some kind of trouble over a dope deal and the suspect got a pistol and shot both of these guys.”

Penix was released from prison in December after doing time for crimes in 2011 in Bleckley County that included obstruction of law enforcement, theft and taking a weapon to school.

Brannen said there had been a warrant out for Penix’s arrest in connection with a Cochran shooting.

Cochran Police Chief Chris Coley said witnesses to the June 19 shooting identified Penix as the gunman who shot at two other men, wounding one in the foot.

“This was a verbal dispute that got out of hand,” Coley said.

In recent days, Cochran police had been following leads that Penix might be in Eastman or Macon, near where he was arrested Tuesday.

GBI agents out of Region 13 headquartered in Perry also were assisting in the investigation after a Chevrolet Malibu believed to be involved in the homicide was abandoned in Warner Robins, Special Agent in Charge J.T. Ricketson said.

Tuesday afternoon, agents were compiling probable cause to secure a search warrant for the car the suspect might have used and left in Houston County.

“I believe he was in multiple vehicles,” Ricketson said.

The GBI Region 12 Office in Eastman is leading the investigation and trying to determine where and why the men were killed.

Thompson, whose nickname was “Florida Boy,” was released from prison May 7 after serving part of a 15-year sentence for a 2013 aggravated assault in Houston County, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.

This story was originally published June 27, 2017 at 11:21 AM with the headline "Double slaying south of Hawkinsville involved ‘dope deal’; suspect has prison record."