In August 2012, the U.S. Marshal’s Office arrested Tobijah Nelson, 28, in Queens, N.Y., after the Jamaican national spent more than three years on the run, following the murder of Army Spc. Charles Clements at a Spring Lake nightclub.
Nelson has been charged with accessory after the fact to the murder.
WRAL reported:
Clements, a 27-year-old soldier based in Fort Hood, Texas, went to a friend's birthday party at the Ikola Jamaican Restaurant and Lounge on March 29, 2009. Nelson and another man, Demar Bryan, 24, were regular customers at the nightclub.
That night, Bryan allegedly began arguing with a woman outside. Clements intervened on the woman’s behalf and began arguing with Bryan.
Investigators said Bryan followed Clements back inside and shot him while on the dance floor. Clements was home on leave from Afghanistan and was due to return to war the following week. Mwebe, Clements’ friend, was also injured in the gunfire.
Bryan was apprehended a few months later in Florida, extradited to Cumberland County, and charged with murder.
Both Bryan and Nelson are high-level drug traffickers with a long history of violence, and both are also in this country illegally from Jamaica.
Clements had no connection to the two suspects and was simply attempting to defend a young lady from the drug dealer harassing her, according to police.
Clements left behind three young children.
More recently...
On Feb. 20, police in Fayetteville arrested Francisco Echeverria, 24, after he allegedly gunned down 50-year-old Craig Spencer Morris who was riding his motorcycle at the time.
Morris was a decorated veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps.
Echeverria has been charged with first-degree murder and is currently being held in the Cumberland County Jail on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer.
Comments