Kameron Leslie / Photo from hcsheriff.govKameron Leslie, the man accused of killing 30-year-old Taja Whiteside, has been booked into the Hamilton County Jail.
Leslie, 31, was apprehended in Jacksonville, Florida, on May 1 and extradited to Hamilton County over the weekend on May 4, nearly four months after Whiteside was strangled to death in her Hixson home.
Prosecutors summoned a Hamilton County medical examiner and an investigator with the Chattanooga Police Department to testify before the grand jury, the indictment shows.
The indictment does not state what was presented to the grand jury, but the investigator and medical examiner likely provided information upon which to base the first-degree murder charge, which requires a premeditated intent to kill.
Whiteside’s body was found by her eldest son on Jan. 11, though police weren’t immediately sure whether it was a homicide. Investigators had to work with the Hamilton County Medical Examiner’s Office to determine the cause, manner and circumstances surrounding her death.
Hours after Whiteside’s death, Chattanooga police sent an advisory to other law enforcement agencies identifying Leslie as a person of interest who was wanted for questioning. Leslie was officially named a suspect on Feb. 11 and was added to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s Top 10 Most Wanted list later that month.
A grand jury indicted Leslie on Feb. 6 on one count of first-degree, premeditated murder. His bond has been set to $650,000, according to the indictment.
If convicted, Leslie could face the death penalty, imprisonment for life or life without the possibility of parole.
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