Alabama murder suspect captured in Georgia after 3 week search

A Georgia man is expected to be extradited to DeKalb County on capital murder charges in connection with a homicide in the early morning of April 11.

DeKalb County Sheriff Nick Welden said Christopher Brayden Jones, 23, of Calhoun, Ga., is being held in the Gordon County (Ga.) jail. He was arrested Thursday on unrelated charges.

Jones is accused of the April 11 murder of Marcus Adam Battles, 39, of Mentone. Battles was shot in his vehicle, which then crashed into a residence in the 3000 block of U.S. 117 in Mentone near the Georgia state line.

The incident happened at about 6:16 a.m. Battles died at the scene.

Battle’s sister-in-law, in organizing a GoFundMe page, said he died in a presumed “road rage incident.”

Welden said the investigation was aided by help from various agencies and the general public.

“This has been an absolute 21-day rollercoaster of an investigation,” Welden said. “From tips coming in from across the county to local theories, we’ve followed up on them all and left no stone unturned.”

Multiple agencies were involved, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 9th Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office, Jacksonville State University Center for Applied Forensics, Mentone and Valley Head police, Marshall County Sheriff’s Office, the Gordon and Chattooga County (Ga.) Sheriff’s Offices, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, Mentone Fire and Rescue and Dekalb Ambulance Service.

“Maybe now the Battles family can have some ease to a terrible pain that started 21 days ago that took a loved one and left an entire community with a huge question of why,” Weldon said.