31-year-old Birmingham woman is 5th suspect charged in deadly Alabama murder-for-hire scheme

A fifth person has been charged in an alleged murder-for-hire conspiracy in Alabama that left a 46-year-old man dead in Sylacauga.

Tahila Myicole Lomax, 31, is charged with capital murder/murder-for-hire in the 2021 killing of Bradford Franklin Isbell.

Previously indicted on the same charges are Montrell Towns, 30, Markkeis Antwain Towns, 31, Kiera Monthelia Turner, 28 and Allana Amani Reid, 30.

U.S. Marshals took Lomax into custody Friday at Lakeshore Ridge apartments. She was booked into the Jefferson County Jail Friday morning and remains held without bond.

Isbell was killed about 10 p.m. on June 23, 2021, on Harper Springs Road in Sylacauga. Police found Isbell dead outside the home.

Officers also found Rachel Elizabeth Hayes, 32, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. She was airlifted to UAB Hospital in Birmingham and survived.

Investigators at the time said they didn’t believe the shooting was random, but no arrests were made.

The Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office led the investigation into the murder-for-hire case but officials there have not elaborated on what launched the probe and the reason for their involvement in the case.

A motive has not been disclosed.

Markkeis Towns remains in prison for a 2023 guilty plea in a manslaughter case.

Reid was released from the Jefferson County Jail in April on $60,000 bond, and Turner remains held without bond.

Montrell Towns is already serving a 20-year prison sentence for a conviction of shooting into an occupied vehicle – which was a Birmingham Police Department cruiser.

He was brought from prison to the Jefferson County Jail so that his capital murder warrant could be served on him and remains held there without bond.

The indictment states Montrell Towns hired Markkeis Towns to cause the death of Isbell “pursuant to a contract or for hire.”

It was not immediately clear how, or if, Montrell Towns and Markkeis Towns are related.