Gun links suspect to 2017 Halloween slaying of transgender woman in Macon, sheriff says

An arrest has been made in the 2017 Halloween shooting death of transgender woman Candace Towns, with “a big lead” a recovered handgun that’s been connected to her death and to another shooting the same day, the sheriff said.

Horace Jamal Marsh, 26, of Macon, was arrested at work at Freddy’s Steakburgers on Zebulon Road at 9 p.m. Thursday and charged with murder in Towns’ death.

In 2018, Marsh was arrested on aggravated assault and other charges in the shooting of Kibwe Troupe-Steed at Rutland Place Apartments on Houston Road at about 10:30 p.m. Oct. 31.

Troupe-Steed, who was shot multiple times, recovered.

The handgun recovered from that crime scene has been connected to the crime scene where Towns was killed and the handgun used in both crimes has been connected back to Marsh, Davis said.

Davis credited cracking the Towns’ case to “dedicated investigative work,” singling out Bibb sheriff’s Investigator Omar Sanders, as well as accessibility to ballistics technology such as the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network and other evidence.

“This is a case almost three years old, but we continue to follow leads on these cases ... These cases never really go cold,” Davis said.

The Rutland Place Apartments shooting case had been postponed indefinitely for trial for continued investigation, which had included the completion of a GBI firearms report, according to Bibb County Superior Court records.

Marsh, who was booked into the Bibb County jail at 9:50 p.m. Thursday after being questioned by investigators, was being held without bond Friday.

Oct. 31, 2017, the body of Towns was found lying face up in a driveway between two abandoned homes in the 1500 block of Rosecrest Avenue near downtown Macon just before 4 p.m. She had been shot in the face and a shell casing was found between her legs.

She was seen on surveillance video a couple of days earlier.

In the video, Towns was seen getting inside of a gold-colored, four-door sedan at 2:30 a.m. Oct. 29, 2017, at the Roadway Inn at 4952 Romeiser Road where she lived.

As the probe into her death continues, investigators will take a fresh look at that grainy video footage to attempt to determine whether Marsh can be identified in it, Davis said.

Towns was the 23rd homicide in Bibb in 2017 and she was also the 23rd transgender person to be slain in the U.S. so far that year, according to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

According to a 2017 post on the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation’s website, victims of antitransgender violence are “overwhelmingly transgender women of color who live at the dangerous intersections of transphobia, racism, sexism, and criminalization which often lead to high rates of poverty, unemployment, and homelessness.”

With Marsh’s arrest, Davis said he’s hopeful those in the community who may have information related to the slaying will now come forward and provide clarity to the motive and to whether Marsh and Towns knew each other.

In 2009, Towns was shot in the ankle in the same neighborhood within a couple of blocks of where her body was found.

Telegraph archives were used in compiling this report.

This story was originally published July 17, 2020 at 9:36 AM.