At the request of prosecutors, a sessions court judge has dismissed a murder charge against one of three men arrested in a Jan. 12 homicide on Swan Road.
Judge Gary Starnes dismissed charges of first-degree murder, especially aggravated robbery and criminal conspiracy against Devante Lebron Ragland, 19, after prosecutor David Schmidt told the judge that without two witnesses they couldn’t show probable cause.
Christopher Jennings, 19, and Kristopher Lebron Bell, 20, had a preliminary hearing Friday. Judge David Bales bound charges against the two men to the grand jury for a possible indictment.
The men were arrested in connection with the shooting death of Timothy Bumpass.
Both men are being held on a $500,000 bond each in the Hamilton County Jail.
For more see tomorrow’s Times Free Press.
Todd South covers courts, poverty, technology, military and veterans for the Times Free Press. He has worked at the paper since 2008 and previously covered crime and safety in Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia. Todd’s hometown is Dodge City, Kan. He served five years in the U.S. Marine Corps and deployed to Iraq before returning to school for his journalism degree from the University of Georgia. Todd previously worked at the Anniston (Ala.) Star. Contact ...
