Mallory VaughnA 36-year-old man just indicted in a 2009 cold case turned himself in to authorities Wednesday, though his girlfriend claims he’s innocent, alleging he was already cleared by law enforcement nearly a decade ago.
Mallory Aunte Vaughn “cooperated with [authorities] back when this happened,” Carmeisha Jones, 30, said Thursday. “He went to the station, gave his fingerprints and then someone called him and told him it didn’t match.”
Jones said her boyfriend of 15 years, who does construction work and has a 9-year-old daughter with a second child on the way, turned himself in to the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office Fugitive Division on Wednesday, a day after prosecutors held a news conference to announce his charges.
Chattanooga defense attorney David Barrow confirmed he escorted Vaughn to authorities around 1:25 p.m. Wednesday. According to the Hamilton County Jail, Vaughn remains in custody on a $10,000 bond for a probation violation. He is also charged with felony murder and especially aggravated robbery, neither of which had listed bond amounts.
Hamilton County District Attorney General Neal Pinkston said Tuesday a grand jury returned criminal indictments against Vaughn for the slaying of Franklin Bonner, 68, who was found bound in his home with duct tape around his mouth on Jan. 16, 2009. After one of Bonner’s relatives called prosecutors on his death anniversary this year, Pinkston said he reopened the case and used new developments in old and new interviews to bring charges against Vaughn and a second individual who was a juvenile at the time.