Man arrested in Eatonton double murder was out on bond in Baldwin County murder case

A Milledgeville man out on bond while awaiting trial in the 2019 slaying of a Baldwin County man was arrested Monday in connection with a double murder in neighboring Putnam County.

Xavier Rashad Chamber, 19, was arrested and charged with killing 19-year-old Roman Felton Rowell and 16-year-old Jeremiah DeSean Walton in Eatonton’s Lawson Homes, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has taken over the case and charged Chambers with two counts of murder along and aggravated assault. The GBI said Eatonton police broke up a fight Sunday night in Lawson Homes, and, shortly after they left, Chambers began shooting into a crowd, hitting Rowell and Walton.

When Putnam Sheriff’s deputies and Eatonton police arrived back on the scene, the street was “littered with shell casings,” Sills said. Witnesses later identified Chambers as the shooter, according to Sills, and he was arrested and turned over to the GBI. Rowell was transported to a local hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival.

Baldwin County shooting

Chambers was arrested in the 2019 shooting of Wydeldrck Denson and charged in March with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.

Prosecutors believe Chambers shot Denson while inside his Milledgeville apartment on Aug. 9, 2019. Denson was shot once in the abdomen and transported to a local hospital, where he later died. Chambers was given a $150,000 bond; it’s unclear when he posted it and was released from the county jail.

The investigation remains active and ongoing. Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the Eatonton Police Department at 706-485-3551 or the GBI Milledgeville Office at 478-445-4173