A 20-year-old Orange County Jail inmate has been charged with murder after a DNA sample connected him to the apartment where a man had been shot to death in December.
The affidavit of probable cause says police found the suspect had used his cell phone Google to search things like “how long does it take finger prints to come back,” “what is capital murder,” and “how to get away with murder.”
Orange Police Captain Robert Enmon said forensic science, including cell phone searches, calls and texts, led to the charge against Keondrick Arabian Ali Barlow (left) in connection with killing 37-year-old Octavias Lamont Williams.
Barlow was arrested on January 1 on an unrelated theft charge and has been in jail. Detectives took DNA samples from him in jail. Police received the laboratory results on Monday connecting his DNA with the crime scene.
Police found Williams’ body in his apartment the afternoon of Saturday, December 22. He lived in the Sabine Park Apartments off Second Street. His family discovered his body after checking on him when he did not answer phone calls.
His car was found abandoned in a field about two blocks away from the apartment.
The autopsy showed Williams had been shot in the torso. The affidavit says a large pool of blood was near the body and the lower part was covered by a blanket.
Detectives think the body had been staged to appear a woman had been involved. The body was moved because drag marks were on the carpet. A used condom was found near the body and an unwrapped, though unused, condom was also found. Barlow’s DNA was connected with the used condom.
According to the affidavit, Barlow had been a suspect from the beginning because other people had seen him at the apartment the night before.
Sergeant Laughlin outlined the number of times detectives interviewed Barlow and investigated his story. The affidavit says Barlow told detectives his girlfriend had picked him up at Williams’ apartment that night and he had been at work in Lake Charles. However, the employer had no record of Barlow being at work and the facility had been closed the night he said he worked. Also, the woman said she did not pick him up. Cell phone records showed she had not been at the apartment and she had texted Barlow that she could not pick him up that night because she had lost her keys.
Captain Enmon said Barlow has indictments for aggravated assault plus injury to an animal in connection with shooting a dog.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
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