MACON, Ga. — At the beginning of September, we learned that nine murder suspects here in Macon-Bibb County would be eligible for bond.
Just up the road, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis announced Wednesday that they are on track to indict 300 murder suspects this year.
In a Wednesday morning press conference, Willis announced that her team has been working around the clock since March.
"I'm happy to announce not one individual in Fulton County will be released, charged with the crime of homicide, because a lawyer or an investigator failed to work up the case and failed to get it indicted timely," said Willis.
Their goal is to make sure homicide suspects are indicted within the 90-day window.
"In 2019, over a 12-month period, 156 defendants were indicted for the crime of murder. Due to the team that stands behind me now, this year alone, in seven months -- because that's how long we've had to run grand jury -- we've already indicted 193 murder defendants," said Willis.
In Macon-Bibb County, we know of two murder suspects who were indicted this month.
Albert Booze was charged with 15 charges in all, including felony murder and aggravated assault on a public safety officer. He's accused of killing Bibb jail deputy Christopher Knight in April.
The other is Passion Watkins, who allegedly killed her pregnant stepmother in spring 2020. She's being held on a $200,000 bond.
District Attorney Anita Reynolds Howard said she couldn't move forward with others because they were lacking key evidence. She laid that on the GBI and the Bibb County Sheriff's Office.
Some of the other murder suspects unaccounted for include Earlondez Bond, the man accused of killing Joshua Horne in west Macon in Oct. 2020.
13WMAZ asked Howard in early September if she was concerned about that 90-day deadline.
"Of course it's always a concern, but what's more concerning to me is jeopardizing justice to rush to indict a case. That's not fair to the victims, that's not fair to the defendants, and I don't believe that's what this community elected me to do," she said.
13WMAZ reached out to the district attorney's office to try and get an update on any progress with indictments, specifically for the remaining six murder suspects who had not been indicted as of mid-September. So far, they have not responded.
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