Second man charged with murder in East Macon shooting death

Bibb County deputies followed a tip Sunday afternoon to arrest the second suspect in a Jan. 7 murder in East Macon.

Deputies found Antwan Denard Johnson, 25, in a room at the Discovery Inn, 4604 Chambers Road, and arrested him without incident, deputies said in a statement.

Johnson is one of two men charged in the murder of Ulysses Pitts, 42, who was robbed, shot multiple times and struck in the back of his head with a gun. He was shot in front of his girlfriend’s children, boys aged 13 and 10, after a gunman said, “I got to shoot one of y’all” before asking for money, a Bibb County Sheriff’s Office report said. The gunfire happened in a one-story brick home on McCall Road, between Jeffersonville and Recreation roads.

Johnson is charged with armed robbery and murder from the incident with Pitts. He also had outstanding warrants from an unrelated case for battery (family violence), terroristic threats and acts, and cruelty to children in the third degree, the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. He was being held Sunday at the Bibb County Law Enforcement Center without bond.

The other suspect in the case, Sherod Ranardo Holston, turned himself in to deputies Jan. 10 and was charged with murder and armed robbery in the Pitts case, as well as violation of probation.

A sheriff’s office report mentioned three gunmen. Bibb County Sheriff’s Lt. Sean Defoe said investigators had taken out warrants only on Johnson and Holston.

“They’re still following leads in this investigation, and it’s still an ongoing investigation,” Defoe said Sunday.

Anyone with information about the incident is urged to call the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office at 478-751-7500 to leave a message for the on-call investigator, or to call Macon Regional Crime Stoppers at 877-68CRIME.

The sheriff’s office said the tip came through Crime Stoppers.

Telegraph archives were used in this report. To contact writer Mike Stucka, call 744-4251.

This story was originally published January 18, 2015 at 4:14 PM with the headline "Second man charged with murder in East Macon shooting death ."