On a cold December day in 2015, the life of Paul Gregory Hayward II, a 32-year-old White/Caucasian male known to his loved ones as 'JR,' was tragically cut short. On December 27, his body was discovered, shot to death, near Highway 230 in Hickman County, Tennessee. The following day, his car was found abandoned at a bar in Columbia.
An investigation into Hayward's death revealed a sinister plot. Authorities determined that he was the intended victim of a planned robbery. For years, the case remained a painful open wound for his family and friends, who remembered him as a loving father to his two sons, a dedicated electrician and foreman at General Motors, and an avid basketball player with a zest for life. He was a man with a ready smile, deeply loved and respected by those who knew him.
A significant breakthrough in the case came in the summer of 2019 when a tip from the family led the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to four individuals. On February 5, 2020, a Hickman County Grand Jury indicted Lyndsey Barnes, Jamie Swarthout, Mustafa Slater, and Tramell Sparkman in connection with Hayward's murder. The charges against them were severe, including first-degree murder, attempted robbery, aggravated kidnapping, and robbery conspiracy. Slater and Sparkman faced additional weapons charges. The arrests brought a renewed wave of emotion for Hayward's family, who pledged to attend every court hearing in their quest for justice and closure. At the time of the indictment, Barnes was held in the Hickman County Jail, while Swarthout, Slater, and Sparkman were incarcerated in other counties on unrelated charges.
