At 9 p.m. on Tuesday, May 10 — approximately 32 hours after first responders arrived to a horrific scene at Redwine Church Road outside Royston — Hart County Sheriff’s Office officials informed the media that they made an arrest in the shooting deaths of Jerece Teasley, 26, and Alexius Spencer, 25.
Morris Maurice Norwood, 59 of Hartwell, was booked Tuesday night and charged with felony murder of both victims “with additional charges as well,” according to a sheriff’s office release.
The investigation began shortly after 1 p.m. Monday when the sheriff’s office responded to a call from a woman that lived in the vicinity according to the office’s lead investigator Chris Carroll.
“She heard multiple shots and saw people running from the vehicles,” Carroll said.
“She got in her vehicle and drives around to the scene and finds that there is a person deceased and calls us back and says, ‘One person is deceased in the vehicle.’ That was basically all the info we had on the original call.”
Deputies arrived on scene and discovered that person was the Hartwell resident Teasley, shot dead in the driver’s seat of a white Hyundai Sonata along Redwine Church Road near its intersection with Airline-Goldmine Road. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was notified and heavily involved with the case from that point forward.
“Then [deputies] find a... female, Ms. Spencer, about 400 feet up the road, back towards Airline-Goldmine. She ran up the road; she had been shot multiple times,” Carroll said.
Carroll said both victims were shot multiple times, though didn’t specify how many, citing the ongoing investigation.
“She ran about 300 yards up the road and collapsed in the grass on the side of the road,” sheriff Mike Cleveland said. “The first deputy that came in actually didn’t see her. Then she managed to get her arm thrown back into the road and somebody saw her so we were able to get her into the back of the ambulance.”
Spencer, a mother and Hartwell resident, died within minutes of entering the ambulance.
Cleveland said first responders tried to ask her several questions but “she was breathing her last one.”
At that point, Hart County EMS called off a medical helicopter that had been deployed for Spencer. A second helicopter, one from the Georgia State Patrol — as well as a K-9 unit — was deployed searching for suspects.
Around 3 p.m. law enforcement took a man into custody at South Hart Elementary for questioning. The man had strong ties to Spencer, Carroll and Cleveland said.
“We were trying to name any suspect we could — get a connection with anybody,” Carroll said. “We knew from prior reports that Ms. Spencer had a lot of incidents going on with her ex.”
Cleveland added that there were “at least three or four reports where he had caused trouble with her and Mr. Teasley.”
The man was released after questioning in the late afternoon Monday.
A second man was brought in Monday evening for questioning ”due to his vehicle description and quickly ruled out,” Carroll said.
Carroll said throughout the investigation, officials determined Spencer was the person seen by the initial witness fleeing the crime scene toward Airline-Goldmine Road, and the search ensued for a suspect who reportedly fled in a silver SUV.
He said a vehicle matching Teasley’s was spotted earlier at the farm adjacent to the crime scene.
“One of the deputies said they came by Rose Acres [farm] and saw a white vehicle sitting there in the driveway which matched the description of [Teasley’s] so we went to Rose Acres and of course pulled their video and got some pictures of both vehicles, which gave us a little better description of what we were looking for,” Carroll said. “It turns out both vehicles were at Rose Acres prior to the incident taking place. They didn’t have anything to do with Rose Acres but they were in the parking lot.”
Carroll said investigators received a tip Monday evening that the silver SUV possibly belonged to Norwood, and he was at least the third person of interest brought in for questioning.
“He was actually interviewed [Monday], not taken into custody but interviewed due to the vehicle,” Carroll said. “[On Tuesday] as we gathered more information, got more tips, and through investigative practices, we were able to tie him back to it.”
Carroll said on Tuesday afternoon, law enforcement went to Norwood’s Hartwell residence and seized his silver Chevy Equinox.
“He ended up calling in and had somebody bring him to the sheriff’s office to talk to us,” Carroll said. “GBI interviewed him and after the interview, he was arrested.”
Law enforcement recovered “several weapons”, Carroll said.
“We are still trying to determine which ones are consistent with the crime but we do have several weapons.”
When asked about a possible motive and the meeting between the two vehicles, Carroll said, “there’s lots of ideas floating out there.”
“The initial information we received was there was some theft between [Teasley and Norwood],” Carroll said. “One had stolen some stuff from the other one. And then we know through the investigation that there was some drug activity there too. We don’t know the extent of that.
“I don’t think there was anything we found that led us to believe [Spencer] had any decision-making in the whole deal. She just happened to be in the car with him, which was unfortunate.”
Cleveland emphasized Tuesday night that the case was an ongoing investigation.
“We’re still following some leads — phone calls we’ve received, some things we were made aware of that make you scratch your head and think maybe he wasn’t the only one involved. But as far as we know right now, he was it,” Cleveland said.
“He’ll have a bond hearing with a magistrate judge within 72 hours.”
Magistrate judges cannot set a bond for felony murder in the state of Georgia.
“We hope the [district attorney] is going to seek the death penalty on this. If not, we don’t know why not,” Cleveland said.