Macon man allegedly caught with now-missing man’s truck was accused of murder in 2017
A Macon man who was once charged with murder in a 2017 shooting death here was arrested Thursday and accused in the theft of a pickup truck that belonged to a man who disappeared from a Riverside Drive motel on Feb. 10 and has not been found.
Richard Lindsey Rowland, 55, who has ties to North Carolina, vanished from the Extended Stay America motel in north Macon a week ago Friday.
On Thursday morning, DeAngelo Dewayne Davis, 38, was booked into the Bibb County jail on a theft-by-taking charge. A warrant for Davis’ arrest said Davis was “in possession” of a 2004 Toyota Tacoma that belonged to Rowland.
It was unclear where Davis, who lives off Napier Avenue and had been released from prison on Jan. 4, was arrested or how investigators may have linked him to Rowland’s truck.
Davis, according to the warrant, “admitted” he had been driving the Toyota “for several days after he was the last (person) to see (Rowland), who is still missing.”
The warrant offered no further detail, other than to say Davis “made no attempt to contact law enforcement or return the vehicle to the owner’s family.”
Davis has not been charged in connection with Rowland’s disappearance and sheriff’s officials have not spoken publicly about locating Rowland’s truck.
In late December 2017, in the wake of a fatal shooting near Ridge Avenue, Davis, wounded in an exchange of gunfire, was among three men indicted on felony murder and aggravated assault charges. The charges against Davis were dismissed by Bibb prosecutors in 2019.
In a shooting earlier in December 2017, Davis was accused of shooting and wounding a man at the Palm Tree Inn Extended Stay motel on Riverside Drive. The shooting charge was dropped at a hearing in 2019 where Davis, a prior felon, instead pleaded guilty to a gun-possession charge.
He was released from prison in January after serving a sentence related to the gun charge.
Looking for Rowland
Meanwhile on Friday, the investigation into Rowland’s disappearance continued.
Sheriff’s officials said in a statement Wednesday that Rowland was last seen leaving the Extended Stay America motel with another man on Feb. 10. The two were said to have been riding in Rowland’s red truck.
Someone who stayed at the motel reported that the other man later returned in the truck, without Rowland, officials said. That other man reportedly told investigators that Rowland, when they went somewhere, had at some point “walked away from the truck and never returned.”
This story was originally published February 17, 2023 at 3:51 PM.