On the afternoon of Sunday, November 27, 2022, a 911 call from a frightened girlfriend led police to a grim discovery in Decatur, Alabama. Inside an apartment at the Wheeler Estate complex on McEntire Lane S.W., officers found the bodies of two men who had been shot to death. One of the victims was Quinton Lamon Owens, a 42-year-old Black man. The other was identified as 29-year-old Codey Ray Schepp.
The Decatur Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division began piecing together
the events that led to the double homicide. According to testimony from an investigator, the killings occurred during a planned robbery that coincided with a drug transaction. An autopsy revealed that Owens had suffered seven gunshot wounds to his torso. Police found two handguns at the scene, where at least 11 shots had been fired. Schepp's girlfriend told authorities that a bin of marijuana had been disturbed and that purses, a cellphone, and a suitcase were missing from the apartment.
Investigators used surveillance videos and cellphone records to identify a suspect. Videos from gas stations showed Owens with a man named Demarcus Antoine Travis hours before the shootings, and another video captured Travis inside Owens' vehicle shortly before the men were killed. According to a police affidavit, cellphone messages indicated Owens and Schepp had arranged to meet, and that Owens was coordinating with Travis to rob Schepp. Police publicly identified Travis, then 40, as a suspect and described him as armed and dangerous.
The search for Travis ended peacefully on December 16, 2022, when he surrendered to the Decatur Police Department, accompanied by his criminal defense attorney. He was arrested and charged with capital murder in connection with the deaths of Quinton Owens and Codey Schepp. Travis was booked into the Morgan County Jail, where he was held without bond.
Following a preliminary hearing on January 6, 2023, the capital murder case against Demarcus Antoine Travis was sent to a Morgan County grand jury for consideration.
