Police nab Warner Robins murder suspect a mile from scene of killing

A Warner Robins man accused of shooting another man to death last week was arrested Sunday night a mile from the scene of the killing.

Kevin Leonard Hobbs is charged with murder in the death of Danny Ray Hicks. Hicks was fatally shot Wednesday while checking on a vacant house in a wooded area near 802 Ga. 247, not far south of Ga. 96.

Hobbs, 26, allegedly pulled a pistol and shot 47-year-old Hicks in the chest and leg. Hicks, a Madison resident who was in town visiting friends, died a couple hours later at a Macon hospital.

Houston County Sheriff’s Capt. Jon Holland said Hobbs was recently homeless and had been living in the wooded area near the burned trailer where Hicks was shot. There is some evidence Hobbs was trying to steal tools from the property, but that part is still unclear, Holland said.

Hobbs, who worked at IHOP, was arrested just before midnight Sunday, according to a jail booking report.

A deputy nabbed Hobbs near Canion Place and Solomon Road in Kathleen, about a mile through the woods from where Hicks was slain.

Last May, Hobbs was arrested in Peach County on charges that included violation of probation, driving on a suspended license, without insurance and an expired registration.

A few months later, in October, Hobbs was evicted from a double-wide on Hanover Drive in Byron, records show.

Early one morning in February, Warner Robins police responded to a house on Gawin Drive where Hobbs reportedly overdosed, according to the police department’s crime bulletin.

Hobbs was charged with first-degree burglary in 2013, but the charge was not pursued.

Houston County schools spokeswoman Beth McLaughlin said Hobbs left the school district in 2008, when he was in 10th grade.

This story was originally published April 29, 2019 at 1:38 PM.