DA TO SEEK DEATH AGAINST TWO IN DEPUTY'S SHOOTING

Five people were indicted on murder charges Tuesday in the shooting
death of a Bibb County deputy, and prosecutors are seeking the death
penalty against two of them.

Deputy Joseph Whitehead, 36, was shot inside a house on Atherton
Street in west Macon during a drug raid last month.

Bibb County District Attorney Howard Simms said he would seek the
death penalty against Antron Dawayne Fair, 21, and Damon Antwon
Jolly, 20, who are accused of firing shots at Whitehead.

Also indicted on murder charges in the case were Cynthia Greene, 20,
Thomas Mason Porter Jr., 22, and Hassan Shirell Harclerode, 26,
police said. Harclerode wasn't at the home at the time of the
shooting, but he was charged because, as the home's renter, he was
responsible for activities there, authorities have said.

Earlier, Simms had suggested that he would try to seek the death
penalty against all five. But he said Tuesday that in order to do so,
Harclerode, Porter and Greene would have to have had prior knowledge
or participated directly in the killing.

Simms said he decided to seek the death penalty against Fair and
Jolly not long after the slaying.

"Once we knew what the facts to the case were, it was pretty much a
foregone conclusion," he said.

Georgia law allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty in cases in
which a law-enforcement officer is killed while on duty.

"In this case, I don't see any reason to deviate from the law," Simms
said. "(Law-enforcement officers) are people who are paid and are not
paid well to watch out for the rest of us, and when somebody kills
one of them it's a horrible thing. And I'm going to seek the maximum
punishment for people who do that, period."

Whitehead was the first Bibb County deputy killed in the line of duty
in nearly 81 years. He and 11 other deputies were serving a no-knock
warrant at the Atherton Street home during the early morning of March
23. Whitehead was shot four times.

Fellow deputies dragged him out of the house, and those inside
surrendered immediately, authorities said. Deputies said they found
marijuana, cocaine and guns at the home.

Bibb County Sheriff Jerry Modena said his department is still healing.

"They're pulling themselves back together. It's going to take some
time," he said. "These are professional people, and they realize the
business they're in."

Fair and Jolly are two of five people that Simms is seeking the death
penalty against.

Crystal May Carver and Shay Allen Morey were charged with murder in
February 2005, accused of killing Carver's husband, Bobby Gene
Wagner. Wagner was hacked to pieces in a Bibb County motel and his
body dumped in Twiggs County. The death penalty was initially sought
against Morey, but he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.

In another case, Jomekia Dechelle Pope is accused of burning his
girlfriend to death last summer. And in February, Simms announced
that he would seek the death penalty against 19-year-old Brandon
Parker on charges that he stabbed a 72-year-old Macon grandmother to
death in December.