A 20-year-old man was charged Thursday with capital murder in the beating death of a 70-year-old man in Houston County that the sheriff called “one of the most brutal” in his 45 years in law enforcement.

Justin Ryan Ammons, 20, of Wicksburg, was being held in the county jail on unrelated shoplifting charges when the sheriff’s office received confirmation Thursday that Ammons’ DNA matched a sample taken from the scene of the murder of Durwood Ard, 70, said Houston County Sheriff Donald Valenza.

Ard was found severely beaten Dec. 12 in the 1100 block of U.S. 84 West in Wicksburg, said Valenza. The death was declared a homicide.

Ammons was a suspect early on in the investigation, Valenza said.

The sheriff’s office charged him Thursday with capital murder-robbery after the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences told the office about the DNA match.

Investigators have yet to determine what led up to the murder but Valenza said authorities believe Ammons and Ard knew each other.

Ammons “frequented” Wicksburg and may have been homeless at the time of the killing, the sheriff said.

In describing the crime scene, Valenza, who has been with the sheriff’s office since 1979, said the slaying was among the most barbaric of his career.

“I’ve been with the department a long time and that was one of the most brutal murders I’ve witnessed, the scene,” the sheriff said. “A victim beat the way Mr. Ard was, from my visual at the crime scene … it looks like he had severe, extreme skull fractures and structural damage to the skull – severe.”

Houston County Jail records showed Ammons was held on pickpocketing charges on the same day Ard was killed.

The records did not yet show the capital murder charge against Ammons.