Posted on 10/24/2007 9:32:04 AM PDT by beaureguard
Marietta police have arrested a suspect in the weekend death of a 21-year-old video game store manager who suffocated after having his face duct-taped during a robbery.
Patrick Gray Graham, a 34-year-old ex-con, was taken to the Cobb County Jail just before daybreak Wednesday after being questioned for several hours at Marietta police headquarters.
He is charged with murder, three counts of kidnapping, three counts of false imprisonment, three counts of armed robbery and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, according to the arrest warrant.
Graham was also charged with probation violation. State records show prior convictions in Cobb County for forgery, obstruction of a law enforcement officer, cocaine possession and cocaine distribution, and Graham did two stints in state prisons. According to jail records, he is employed by a Marietta poultry processing plant.
Marietta police spokesman Mark Bishop said fingerprints from the crime scene led detectives to Graham as a "person of interest."
Detectives identified a "couple of different locations" where Graham might be living, Bishop said.
The Honda Civic stolen from the victim was found about 5 p.m. Tuesday in the parking lot of a Cherokee County Publix store. Police put the car under suveillance for several hours "in case Mr. Graham came back to get the vehicle," Bishop said.
When the suspect didn't return to the car, police Tuesday night went to one of the possible residences, at the Garrison Plantation apartments on South Cobb Drive.
While at Garrison Plantation, detectives learned that the suspect was at the nearby Skyway Apartments.
Bishop said the Marietta police SWAT team then went to the Skyway Apartments and arrested Graham.
Police also executed search warrants at the apartments and recovered items stolen from the GameStop video store on Cobb Parkway, "and that's how [Graham] became our suspect," Bishop said.
He said a sketch of the suspect drawn by a GBI artist was a close match.
"Having seen both the sketch and the suspect, this is one of the best ones that I've seen," Bishop said. "They did an outstanding job."
Bishop said the father of Matthew Cherry, the man who died during the robbery, cried when told of the arrest.
"We're glad we got this individual off the streets," Bishop said. "We hope we have brought some closure" to the family of the victim.
I wonder how this nut got inside and alone with the victim long enough to bind him, rob him and then leave with his car with no one named as having seen him at the store?
Stories today lack details.
Dunk him Salem style.
Waterboard him until his heart explodes.
Congratulations to them for good investigative work and catching the perp this quickly.
A Cobb jury will not hesitate to impose the death penalty if the DA seeks it. This is a tough county on evildoers.
This happened over the weekend. The perp came in at closing, had a gun, and made the manager, another employee, and the other (teenage) employee’s father lay on the floor. He then duct taped all three, but apparently only Matthew Cherry got duct tape on his face. Others were only taped on the arms. From what I understand, the guy then wandered around in the store for quite a while - one to two hours, I believe.
Thanks
Please join me in calling for the ban of duct tape. If not an out right ban there at least needs to be strict controls over who can buy and have it in their possession. This product is routinely sold to the public sans even limited training on it’s proper use. God knows how many rolls of this extremely dangerous material are in the average household and easily accessible to the “childrens”. The only people that need duct tape are those that are licensed HVAC professionals and, of course, Red Green.
Some background here:
http://www.mdjonline.com/content/index/showcontentitem/area/1/section/15/item/96990.html
“Police responded to the call at approximately 7:54 p.m. “
Problem with this statement is that the article doesn’t say who called.
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