In the late hours of an autumn evening in Columbus, Georgia, the lives of two teenagers were tragically cut short. On October 7, 2019, 18-year-old Montrell Johnson and 17-year-old Terreon Deontae' 'Nunne' Joseph were shot and killed on 32nd Avenue. The incident unfolded around 11 p.m., when Columbus police officers responded to a call of a person being shot in the 200 block of the street.
Upon their arrival, they discovered the two young men, both deceased from gunshot wounds.
The investigation into the double homicide led police to a suspect with a history of being in the news. Rayshondre Tarver, a 19-year-old from Phenix City, was arrested and charged with two counts of felony murder in connection with the deaths of Johnson and Joseph. Interestingly, Tarver had been the subject of a missing person's report in 2017 when he was 17 years old.
During a preliminary hearing in Columbus Recorder's Court, Tarver pleaded not guilty. His defense attorney argued that his client acted in self-defense. The attorney claimed that Johnson and Joseph were attempting to rob Tarver and that one of the deceased had a jammed 9mm handgun. The defense asserted that Tarver was defending himself and another individual who was driving a vehicle they were in. The prosecution's ability to counter this claim was questioned by the defense, who argued that the case hinged on whether Tarver was committing a felony at the time, a point they contended could not be proven.
Following his arrest, Tarver was held in the Muscogee County Jail. While the initial legal proceedings set the stage for a contentious court battle, publicly available information does not detail the final resolution of the charges against Rayshondre Tarver in the deaths of Montrell Johnson and Terreon Joseph.
