On a summer day in Alabama, the quiet Garland community in Butler County became the scene of a grim discovery. On June 2, 2018, the bodies of 28-year-old Cortez Antonio 'Tony' Dees and 25-year-old Luman Williams, both men from Evergreen, were found in a wooded area along Dilly Hill Road. A passerby stumbled upon the scene around 3:50 p.m. and immediately alerted the Butler County Sheriff's Office.
Investigators determined that both Dees and Williams had been fatally shot.
The investigation quickly expanded as, around the same time the bodies were discovered, authorities were called to the scene of a vehicle fire on Tram Road, not far from the Interstate 65 exit in Georgiana. The vehicle, a gray 2018 Audi, was found to belong to one of the victims, linking the two crime scenes. Law enforcement worked through the night, processing the wooded area where the men were found, believing their bodies had been placed there shortly before being discovered.
Several months later, the investigation led to a series of arrests. In the fall of 2018, four individuals from Birmingham were taken into custody in connection with the double homicide. The suspects were identified as 31-year-old Courtney Andrews, 18-year-old Kaia Fortune, 29-year-old Nathaniel Anthony Fortune, and 35-year-old Jonathan Leonard Willis. The arrests, which occurred between September and October of that year, were the result of a collaborative effort between the Alabama Attorney General's Office and local law enforcement.
Each of the four suspects faced four counts of capital murder and one count of tampering with evidence. Courtney Andrews received an additional charge for making a false statement. The charges indicated that the murders were connected to burglary, robbery, and kidnapping. While the specific roles each individual allegedly played were not immediately disclosed, the arrests marked a significant development in the case, bringing a measure of resolution to a community shaken by the violent deaths of the two young men.
