Four years after the brutal death of Clark Atlanta University student Alexis Crawford, Barron Brantley has been charged with murder in connection with her passing.
Crawford’s body was found at a local park in Atlanta one week after her family reported her missing. Police would later charge her friend and roommate, Jordyn Jones with her murder along with Brantley, who was Jones’ boyfriend.
Court documents show Crawford and Jones got into a physical altercation in their apartment just miles away from CAU’s campus. Police believe Brantley got involved, choking Crawford to death.
An arrest warrant was issued, accusing Jones of “smothering Crawford with a black trash bag until she stopped breathing and died,” according to a FOX 5 Atlanta report.
“Ms. Jones was an active part of the murder of Ms. Crawford, helped clean the apartment, and helped stuff Ms. Crawford into a large Rubbermaid bin used for storage or packing things. They put the bin in a vehicle and left her body in the bin in Exchange Park,” Fulton County Deputy District Attorney Adam Abbate told a judge during a 2019 hearing. “After the death or murder of Ms. Crawford, (Jones) continued to text Ms. Crawford’s phone, knowing that she and the defendant had turned the phone off, asking Ms. Crawford where she was like she was worried.”
Crawford’s mother, Tammy Crawford, has since released a statement pleading with the courts to keep Brantley in jail while he awaits trial.
“When I learned that [Brantley] was seeking a bond again, I knew we had to speak up and out because the monsters that murdered Alexis should not ever get out of jail – under any circumstances. I cannot imagine a judge finding it just or safe to grant Barron the freedom to walk around and be with his family while Alexis lies in a lonely grave,” one of Crawford’s family members wrote in a statement.
Both suspects have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and concealing a death.
Following the initial court date being postponed, Brantley is expected in court this Friday.
