Murder charge dropped for Macon man as another is arrested in westside slaying
A murder charge has been dropped against a man jailed in connection with a Nov. 22 shooting death at a west Macon apartment complex.
In announcing the development in a statement late Thursday, Bibb County sheriff’s officials noted the arrest of another man charged with murder in the slaying.
The victim in the shooting, Romero Gonzalez, 49, was found fatally wounded and lying outside an automobile at Riverbend Apartments just west of Macon Mall on Mercer University Drive.
Gonzalez was robbed and shot in a 7 p.m. incident the Sunday before Thanksgiving, investigators said.
Not long afterward, investigators charged Guadalupe Hernandez Perez with murder. Sheriff’s officials at the time said Perez “presented a gun and shot Gonzalez.”
Though the murder charge has since been dropped, Perez, a 37-year-old who lived at the apartments, remained in jail Friday on an “immigration offense,” jail records show.
New charges
Late Thursday afternoon, sheriff’s investigators charged another man who lived at the apartment complex, Jamal DeShawn Roundtree, with murder.
Roundtree, 22, ended up in jail as “new evidence evolved,” the sheriff’s statement said.
The statement went on to say that investigators learned that around the time of the shooting “several males” had “gathered near Gonzalez’s vehicle.”
One of the men is thought to have robbed and shot Gonzalez and then run off with the other guys.
“Perez was sitting inside of the vehicle when the incident occurred, but left shortly after Gonzalez was shot,” the statement said.
“Perez was charged after he was interviewed by investigators. During the interview, Perez made several false statements to investigators about the incident and he also claimed that he was not in the vehicle when Gonzalez was shot.”
The statement goes on to explain “new information and evidence” led to the murder charge against Perez being dropped.
Roundtree, meanwhile, said by authorities to have been one of the people near Gonzalez’s automobile, now faces a murder charge was said to be a “party to a crime,” the statement said.