DA clears Crawford County deputy who killed man after car chase, tussle for gun
A Crawford County sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot a man near Roberta attempting to elude him was cleared this week after authorities completed their examination of the deadly January encounter.
William Owenby shot Denrick Demond Stallings four times in the chest at close range on Jan. 9 while the two tussled on the ground, officials announced Wednesday.
Macon Judicial Circuit District Attorney Anita Reynolds Howard said no charges would be brought against the deputy, who had been trying to take Stallings into custody after a high-speed chase.
Howard said Owenby fired his taser and that one of its prongs struck Stallings, 47, but failed to incapacitate him. In an ensuing struggle and fray, Stallings pinned Owenby on the ground against a fence.
Then, in amid a hand-to-hand clash, Stallings began “snatching” at Owenby’s gun, trying to free it from its holster, Howard said.
With Owenby pressed against the fence and with Stallings trying to take away Owenby’s pistol, Howard said the deputy “had to make a life-or-death decision.”
Owenby fired four shots into Stallings’ chest.
Howard said of Stallings, a former Marine: “He was attempting to become armed with deputy Owenby’s gun.”
There was no body-camera footage of the encounter. At the time, sheriff’s deputies there did not have the devices. They have since requested funding for and ordered them, Howard said.
Even so, investigators were able to piece together what happened by corroborating details from an autopsy report and the deputy’s description of what happened. Investigators also as dash-cam footage that captured parts of the incident and other evidence, including DNA.
Howard said it was perhaps most telling that analysts recovered Stallings’ skin-cell DNA from Owenby’s gun and its holster, which indicated Stallings had grabbed the weapon.
The DA said the deputy was stopping Stallings for speeding when a chase that reached speeds of up to 100 mph began about midday on Jan. 9, ending about a mile north of Roberta. The shooting happened near the intersection of U.S. 341 and a dirt lane known as Miller Drive.
Howard said Stallings’ blood-alcohol level, according to a toxicology report after his death, was .09, and that he had marijuana and cocaine in his system.
Owenby was placed on routine administrative leave after the shooting, which was the second time in two years that Owenby had shot and killed someone following a car chase.
In April 2020, Owenby fatally wounded Jamie Lamar Darley, 33. Darley, according to a GBI and Bibb County DA investigation, reportedly exited his vehicle and fired a shot at Crawford County deputies, and Owenby returned fire.
Deputies were responding to a domestic violence call after Darley had threatened his girlfriend and her family, according to the GBI. Then-Bibb County DA David Cooke cleared Owenby in the 2020 shooting following a review of a GBI investigation, noting it was “crystal clear” that Owenby’s shooting was justified.
Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report.
This story was originally published May 14, 2022 at 7:00 AM.