A man already in prison is the fourth person charged in an alleged murder-for-hire conspiracy in Alabama that left a 46-year-old man dead in Sylacauga.

Montrell Deontrea Towns, 30, is charged with capital murder/murder-for-hire in the 2021 killing of Bradford Franklin Isbell.

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

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 he 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.

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.

Montrell Towns was one of three men arrested and charged with attempted murder and discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle in a 2017 shooting that wounded a Birmingham police officer.

The officer, who is no longer with the department, was part of a department task force.

The officer was wearing a task force uniform, which was an army-green t-shirt and matching pants, or camouflage pants.

He was in an unmarked vehicle when he saw the men approach his vehicle. Authorities said he saw what was happening and began to drive off.

That’s when shots peppered his vehicle.

He took a bullet to the arm on West End’s Princeton Avenue, and then got on the police radio to call for help, saying “I’ve been hit.”

The attempted murder charge against was later Towns was dismissed.

Montrell Towns is no stranger to the law.

He pleaded guilty in November 2017 to the felony drug possession and received a 13-month suspended sentence. He also pleaded guilty in 2015 to unlawful distribution of heroin – also a felony – and received a 24-month suspended sentence.

In 2013, Towns was arrested on three counts of attempted murder and discharging a gun into an occupied building or vehicle, however those charges were dismissed.

A trial date for the suspects has not been announced.