In the small Georgia city of Colquitt, the summer of 2015 was shattered by a violent outburst that claimed the life of one man and left two teenagers seriously wounded. On the afternoon of Saturday, June 20th, a shooting erupted at a residence on North 2nd Street. When police arrived at the scene, they discovered a grim tableau. Thirty-year-old Lamaris Miller of Colquitt lay deceased, a victim of the gunfire. Two other young men, 18-year-old Damien Lee of Colquitt and 17-year-old Levionte Burr of Leesburg, had also been shot. The severity of their injuries necessitated them being airlifted to the Southeast Alabama Medical Center in Dothan, Alabama for urgent medical care.
The alleged perpetrator, 47-year-old Ralph Rogers of Colquitt, was promptly arrested at the scene of the crime. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was called in to assist the Colquitt Police Department with the ensuing investigation. Rogers was subsequently charged with one count of murder and two counts of aggravated assault. He was taken into custody and held at the Miller County Jail to await a bond hearing as the community grappled with the sudden and tragic loss of a young life.
Less than two years later, another tragedy struck the region, this time in rural Baker County, with a connection back to Colquitt. On a Saturday in April of 2017, Marvin Mikel Miller, a 37-year-old man from Baker County, was found deceased on Harden Allen Road. An investigation launched by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Sylvester Field Office and the Baker County Sheriff's Office determined that Miller had been shot multiple times earlier that day.
The investigation into Miller's death quickly pointed to a suspect. Antonio Walters Jr., a 23-year-old from Colquitt, was identified as the alleged shooter. According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the fatal shooting was the culmination of an earlier argument between Miller and Walters. Later that same Saturday afternoon, arrest warrants were issued, and Walters was taken into custody. He was formally charged with felony murder and aggravated assault for his role in the death of Marvin Mikel Miller and was booked into the Miller County Jail.
