Manchella “Joe” Allen, 45, a man from Theodore, Alabama, was killed in the early hours of February 27, 2021, after a night out that turned suddenly and violently irreversible. Police were called to the Cookies N Cream Adult Club on Theodore Dawes Road at about 1:30 a.m. for reports of a homicide, and the scene they arrived to pointed to a shooting that had erupted fast and left little time for anyone to make sense of what was happening.
In the days that followed, investigators focused on a suspect they said they needed to find quickly. Mobile Police asked for the public’s help locating Robert Jamonte Abrams, describing him as wanted for questioning as the homicide case came into sharper focus. The search did not stay confined to Alabama for long. On March 2, 2021, authorities said Abrams and his girlfriend, Breanna Cunningham, were apprehended on the Mississippi Gulf Coast with the help of the U.S. Marshals and local Mississippi agencies, then taken to the Biloxi Police Department. Investigators said both were arrested and charged with murder in connection with Allen’s death.
As the case moved from the shock of the killing to the slow grind of the courts, the story became less about the frantic hunt and more about what could be proven beyond doubt. Years later, in Mobile, Abrams faced a jury for Allen’s shooting death. Defense attorneys argued Abrams acted in self-defense, and after deliberating for a little over four hours, the jury returned a not-guilty verdict on February 2, 2023—an outcome that meant the man once arrested and charged for Allen’s death walked out of court acquitted.
