Police believe Macon man fatally shot teen in the back from his own backyard
Bibb County sheriff’s deputies investigating the shooting death of a 15-year-old Macon boy whose body was found in a patch of woods Tuesday allege that the man accused in the slaying shot the teen in the back from his backyard.
Details in an arrest warrant, a copy of which was obtained by The Telegraph on Wednesday, further noted that the suspect, Algie Frankar Bryant, 57, was allegedly growing marijuana in a bedroom at his Pinson Street home.
Bryant could be seen briefly on his porch shortly before midday Tuesday in the minutes after law enforcement officials arrived at a wooded vacant lot that adjoins his property at 4180 Pinson, a block or so south of Rocky Creek Road. The body of Ashton Roberts was lying in some brush not far from Bryant’s rear fence.
Bryant, who has no known past arrests for violent crimes, was jailed later in the day on murder, drug and gun charges. According to state business records, Bryant, until recently, ran a trucking company. Court filings from late last year show that his wife of 21 years filed for divorce in October.
Investigators have not divulged a possible motive or said how Bryant and Roberts may have crossed paths. Nor was not clear who alerted the authorities about finding the teen’s body about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.
The arrest warrant charging Bryant with murder said 9mm bullet shell casings collected from his backyard near his backdoor — from where he allegedly fired shots at Roberts — were the same Speer Gold Dot brand as the packaging for an empty box of ammunition that investigators found in a bedroom in Bryant’s house.
“The shell casings in the rear of the house were Speer and evidence shows that the fatal shot was fired from the yard of the house,” the warrant stated.
Investigators apparently had not found a gun used in the shooting, noting in the warrant that “the accused also denied owning a handgun despite ammo being found in his home where he lives by himself.”
A video-recording device in his home was linked to a camera that had “a clear view of the crime scene,” investigators noted in the warrant. There was no mention of whether footage of the fatal encounter were recorded.
The investigators described Bryant’s home as “a marijuana grow house.”
In a bedroom, they noted seeing “two booths” that “contained specialty lighting, humidifiers, fans and ventilation,” and also allegedly found “three mason jars that contained marijuana.”
This story was originally published January 11, 2023 at 1:56 PM.