Man re-arrested in deadly Fort Valley crash after new evidence comes up, officials say

A Twiggs County man was re-arrested Wednesday after new evidence surfaced on a 2023 murder case, according to the Peach County Sheriff’s Office.

Najee Shakeem Woolfolk, 31, was arrested by Peach deputies around 10 a.m. at his home on Dennard Road in Dry Branch, an arrest report showed.

Woolfolk was initially charged with murder, malice murder and aggravated assault a day after he allegedly killed a pedestrian during a crash in Fort Valley in October 2023, the police department said on Facebook. But a grand jury did not find reasonable evidence at the time to further prosecute him so he was released from custody, Sheriff Terry Deese told The Telegraph.

“This time, they apparently gathered some more evidence ... and a grand jury issued an indictment on these charges,” Deese said.

He now faces the same charges for the incident.

What happened

Officers responded to what they initially described as a vehicle accident in the 700 block of Pine Street in Fort Valley on Oct. 3, 2023, according to the FVPD Facebook.

They rendered aid to a man who was found “unresponsive in the driveway,” then pronounced dead on the scene.

The FVPD Criminal Investigations Division and Twiggs County Sheriff’s Office took Deese into custody the next day.

The story will be updated as more information becomes available.

This story was originally published October 24, 2024 at 3:50 PM.