Samuel Alfred StreetRISING FAWN, Ga. - Justin Corey Alfrey left home around 9 p.m. on Dec. 15. He told his fiance he needed to drop his friend off somewhere.
"He hugged me, kissed me, told me he loved me and said he would be back home soon," Autumn Cook told the Times Free Press. "But he never came back."
According to the Dade County Sheriff's Office, someone called 911 at 12:15 a.m. The department has not said what the caller reported, but deputies responded to the parking lot of an old trucking business off U.S. Highway 11. They found Alfrey in his car, shot to death.
Cook isn't sure why Alfrey, 32, of Valley Head, Alabama, would have been there. She said she heard the shooting was the result of a mistaken identity. But she has not heard many specific details from investigators, even after they arrested the alleged killer on Friday.
The sheriff's office charged Samuel Alfred Street, 70, with murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm. He remains at the DeKalb County, Alabama, jail, awaiting extradition to Dade County.
Street's son, Joey Street, who was friendly with Alfrey, said he is confused by many elements of the case. Most importantly: the time frame. On the night Alfrey died, Joey Street said someone ran into DJ's Food Mart near the crime scene around 9:40 p.m., claiming a man had been shot.
If the person was talking about Alfrey, which Joey Street now suspects, the report would have been about 40 minutes after Cook thinks her fiance left home. Joey Street wonders why the 911 call didn't come in for almost three more hours.
"There's something fishy there," Joey Street said.
That aside, Joey Street is confused about why Alfrey was in the parking lot of the old trucking company, which Sam Street used to operate. Joey Street said his half-brother lives in an old office there. He's not sure if Alfrey was friends with him.
Joey Street said he has seen Sam Street a couple of times in the week since the killing. He said his father expressed confusion about what exactly happened that night. On Friday morning, police arrested Sam Street in his home in Valley Head, just across the state line.
The GBI has released few details about the case, and Special Agent Joe Montgomery declined to give an interview Friday.
For their part, Joey Street and Alfrey got along well. Alfrey worked construction, and Joey Street was friends with Alfrey's boss. He said they ate together a couple of times.
Cook said her fiance liked to draw and make knives, repairing broken handles with parachute cord. He became a father eight months ago.
"All he ever wanted was to be a daddy," Cook said. "And he was so proud of our son. And for him being taken away so soon is heartbreaking. I'm just glad that they have found his killer so he can have justice. And we can have closure."
Sam Street does not have a long criminal record in Dade County. His last arrest was in 2000, when he punched a man in the face. He pleaded guilty to aggravated battery and received a 12-month suspended sentence.
In the midst of a divorce in 2001, his estranged wife received a restraining order against him. She wrote that he grabbed his 13-year-old son by the throat and thew him to the ground. She said he then seized her hair, pulled her down and threatened to kill her. (In another civil case at the same time, other family members filed affidavits against Sam Street's wife, writing that she drank a lot and had a history of lying.)
Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or tjett@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.