Perry man accused of killing mom, stepdad is a former Georgia correctional officer

A Perry man accused of stabbing his mother and stepfather to death with a kitchen knife worked for the Georgia Department of Corrections.

Anthony Douglas Shoffner, 25, was among multiple correctional officers weeded out as part of a federal undercover operation within the state prisons a few years back.

Wednesday, Shoffner was charged with two counts of murder hours after Rebecca Griffin, 46, and Kenneth Griffin, 42, were found dead inside apartment No. 318 at Houston Lake Apartments in Perry.

Prison drug deals

In 2016, Shoffner was among 45 state DOC officers and contract correctional officers accused of smuggling contraband into prisons and with accepting bribe payments in exchange for providing protection for drug deals that were part of a federal undercover operation.

Shoffner was indicted on charges of accepting bribe payments to protect drug transactions and with attempted drug trafficking, according to a 2016 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia.

Shoffner was a state DOC correctional officer for Macon State Prison from July 21, 2014 to Jan. 31, 2015 and for Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison from Feb. 1, 2015 to Feb. 11, 2016, according to his profile with the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council.

He was fired on Feb. 11, 2016.

The agency, which certifies law enforcement and other peace officers in Georgia, automatically revoked Shoffner’s certification as a correctional officer after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to attempt to distribute methamphetamine on Nov. 9, 2016, according to state POST and federal court records. Details of his sentencing were not immediately available.

Houston Lake Apartments murders

Perry police were dispatched to the Griffins’ apartment they shared with Shoffner for a welfare check on Wednesday after Kenneth Griffin did not show up for work at International City Golf Club in Warner Robins, said Perry police Capt. Heath Dykes, head of investigations. Once inside, officers found their bodies..

“I think it started with him and the stepfather,” Dykes said. “During the mix, (he) ended up stabbing the stepfather and then the mother ... They eventually succumbed to their injuries.”

Each was stabbed repeatedly either Tuesday afternoon or sometime Wednesday.

“To me, he appeared to be acting not-normal — whether he was intoxicated on drugs or whether he’s got mental issues, I don’t know,” Dykes said. “His demeanor was not normal.”

A sample of Shoffner’s blood was taken to determine whether he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs, Dykes said.

Shoffner was also charged with aggravated assault after attacking a maintenance worker at the Timberwood apartment complex in Perry with a baseball bat and brandishing a knife at him about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. This happened while authorities were working the homicide crime scene.

“We believe he went over there looking for someone else and the apartment maintenance man ended up approaching him, and when he did, that’s when he jumped out and started hitting him with the bat,” Dykes said.

Shoffner allegedly hit the worker multiple times in the arms and back with the bat before the worker was able to escape, according to an arrest warrant. Shoffner fled in his stepfather’s 2009 Jeep Cherokee.

He was taken into custody shortly afterward at a Walgreens on Ball Street in Perry where he’d likely gone to get bandages for his bleeding hand he’d cut likely in one of the episodes, Dykes said.

Shoffner had made such a commotion at Walgreens when confronting and arguing with another customer that police were called, Dykes said.

“We were there within seconds because we’d already swarmed the area looking for him, and it was right at shift change, so we had about 14 units out in close proximity ... and took him down there,” Dykes said.

In addition to multiple interviews, authorities have gone over the Jeep looking for evidence, searched the apartment, worked to obtain cellphone records and video footage of where Shoffner went after the slayings, among other shoe-leather investigating.

“We’re backtracking all of his locations,” Dykes said. “We’re just trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together and try to figure out what the motive is and what he was doing and why he was doing the things he that he did.

“It’s really hard to wrap your head around what he was doing.”

Houston Lake Apartments have a Kathleen mailing address but are located within the city limits of Perry and near the Houston Lake Country Club.

Anyone with information related to slayings and other incidents is urged to contact Dykes or lead investigator Quridsha Gilliam at the Perry police Criminal Investigation Division at 478-988-2825, or call Macon Regional Crimestoppers at 1-877-68CRIME.

This story was originally published March 14, 2020 at 10:28 AM.