In the early hours of a Tuesday morning in Savannah, Georgia, the life of 31-year-old Michael Willard James was tragically cut short. Just after midnight on April 8, 2014, authorities discovered James deceased inside his SUV, which had come to a rest in the yard of a residence on the 600 block of West 58th Street.
The vehicle had reportedly crashed into another car parked in the yard, causing a small fire that was quickly brought under control by the Savannah Fire Department. However, it was soon apparent that the crash was a result of a more sinister event. Investigators with the Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department determined that James had been the victim of a shooting.
The investigation into the death of Michael Willard James led detectives to name 31-year-old Jerome Coast Jr. as a suspect. A warrant for murder was issued for his arrest. Acting on information developed by the Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police, U.S. Marshals located Coast in a hotel in Jacksonville, Florida. He was taken into custody on the murder charge just over a week after James's death, bringing a swift, albeit somber, development to the investigation into the violent end of a young man's life.
