One of two men arrested in connection to a Cleveland, Tennessee, double homicide is also a suspect in a recent Chattanooga shooting, which police believe is connected to the homicides.
Jaclyn Carroll-Markcloud's body was found on Sept. 26 in a ditch on the side of McCann Drive with gunshot wounds to her head and neck. A day earlier on Sept. 25, not far from where her body was found, police discovered James Ledford's body, which was lying in a wooden chest in the back of a pickup truck parked in a corner of the Fort Hill Cemetery. He'd been shot in the chest.
Carroll-Markcloud was last seen with Ledford in the truck between Sept. 21 and 22, police said. Her family had reported her as missing and endangered.
Over the course of the investigation, Cleveland police learned Ledford may have stolen a motorcycle from a man named Christopher Mardrie Roberson, according to Bradley County court records.
Roberson, 37, had become upset that his motorcycle was stolen, a woman told police. He reportedly said he "wouldn't bother calling police; he would kill the person who was responsible for stealing his motorcycle."
Two days later, on Sept. 28, a woman was shot multiple times, allegedly by 45-year-old Alfonvo Montell Johnson, in the 3700 block of Youngstown Road in Chattanooga.
She told Chattanooga police that she'd been with Johnson since that morning and had spent some time at Johnson's mother's house. After they left, Johnson drove her around to several different locations around the city, from the Woodmore area to a Brainerd-area motel before finally driving to a gravel road by a large tree, according to Hamilton County court records.
Christopher Mardrie Roberson, left, and Alfonvo Montell JohnsonThere, Johnson forced the woman out of the vehicle and started shooting her, court records state.
She "yelled at Mr. Johnson that he was killing her," a Chattanooga investigator noted in a criminal affidavit.
The woman ran and eventually jumped into the river, court records state. She swam to the other side and yelled for help. Two people were there and called 911.
Johnson "is crazy and has a history of abusive behavior," the woman told police.
Cleveland police learned of the shooting, and on Oct. 2 they traveled to Chattanooga to meet with the woman, according to Bradley County court records.
She told them she believed Johnson tried to kill her because she became suspicious of the events that happened on Sept. 22 at a home in the 100 block of High Street NE.
That September morning, she saw Johnson with an object she thought belonged to Ledford, court records state.
A search warrant was obtained for the home on High Street, where police found a 10mm Glock handgun loaded with .40-caliber ammunition and several items that were "recently burned in a burn pit in the backyard," court records show.
Police later spoke to a man who said he saw Roberson and Johnson together at the High Street house and heard Roberson talking about his stolen motorcycle.
The man said Ledford came to the house later that night, court records state. A woman was seen in the passenger seat of the truck Ledford arrived in. The man left the area and then heard gunshots. He didn't return until about three or four hours later and saw Johnson cleaning what appeared to be blood off the back door.
Johnson told him Roberson had shot Ledford and that Roberson had "f----- that b---- up," referring to the woman in the truck, and then kicked her out.
Police later found a bullet lodged in the High Street house's back door and evidence of several blood spots were discovered to be on the back door and porch.
Roberson and Johnson are each charged with two counts of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and tampering with evidence.
Johnson is additionally charged with attempted first degree murder and aggravated assault in connection to the Chattanooga shooting.
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