Why was a man gunned down outside of a Macon motel? Here’s what a suspect told police
A marijuana deal that ended in gunfire and in the death of a northeast Florida man at a Macon motel late last month appears to have involved multiple suspects, some of whom remain at large.
Details in an arrest warrant in the Nov. 23 slaying of 27-year-old Chauncey Jevon Love II revealed this week that one of the suspects in the killing, an Atlanta-area man, has — according to his version of events — told the police that Love was gunned down by other “individuals” who had come to buy drugs.
Javacea Javonne Battle, the suspect who spoke to Bibb County sheriff’s investigators prior to his arrest, was jailed Wednesday on a charge that he was a party to the crime of murder.
Battle, 23, of Fayetteville, was said to have identified a yet-to-be-arrested “co-perpetrator” in the case who he allegedly arranged the drug deal with. It was unclear from the warrant how many people may have been involved.
The deal apparently went down in a parking lot outside the Best Western Riverside Inn at 2400 Riverside Drive along Interstate 75 a few minutes after 11 p.m.
Battle’s arrest warrant noted that he “admitted to being ‘protection’” for a “co-perpetrator” because Battle, according to what Battle allegedly told investigators, “has a license to carry and has a firearm.”
The warrant goes on to state that Battle said his alleged cohort in the deal had put “the individuals responsible for the shooting in contact” with another man, and that Love was killed by some unnamed “individuals that were there to purchase the drugs.”
Love was apparently shot to death while inside a car he was in with two other men. Sheriff’s officials have said the three drove to Macon from the Jacksonville area about four hours away.
When the shooting happened, Love, mortally wounded, tried to drive off but crashed down an embankment across the street from the motel. The two men riding with him ran away but later spoke to investigators.
Battle, according to the warrant, said that he and his “co-perpetrator” took off before the cops arrived.
Battle was being held without bond at the Bibb jail on Friday after a first-appearance hearing.