Suspect charged in April shooting

Published 12:00 pm Tuesday, May 9, 2017

MOULTRIE, Ga. — A suspect in the April 23 shooting of a 23-year-old Moultrie man has been arrested, as meanwhile the victim, who was shot in the back, remains hospitalized.

Police arrested Robert Lee Fuller on Friday “without incident,” Moultrie Police Department Maj. Tonero Bender said. He had an initial hearing before a Colquitt County Magistrate Court judge where he was denied bond.

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Fuller is accused of shooting Darren Savon Huntley, who was still in a Tallahassee hospital Monday, where he has been since the day he was shot.

Police said Huntley showed up at Colquitt Regional Medical Center on April 23 after being shot some time before 4 p.m., reportedly in the 400 block of Third Avenue Northwest.

Huntley told police that he did not remember any details about the shooting. Police said at the time that he was walking down the street, was shot in the back and fell to the ground.

Officers were dispatched to the hospital after being notified that a gunshot victim had arrived. Police have not said whether someone drove Huntley to the hospital or he arrived by ambulance.

Fuller, 33, of 392 Clifton Drive, was charged Friday with aggravated assault, aggravated battery, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and probation violation.

Both Fuller and Huntley have served time in prison for violent offenses.

Fuller had felony drug convictions but hadn’t been sentenced any prison time when he went to trial in 2012 as part of a gang called “the Forrest Hill Boyz.”

He was one of 11 Moultrie men accused in a 80-count indictment in 2011 alledging robbery, assault, murder and other crimes. Six, including Fuller, were part of a nearly three-week trial the following year; four of the others pleaded guilty and one avoided trial due to his attorney being ill and unable to prepare a defense.

Fuller and other defendants in that case, including Demetrius Tyshaun Daniels and Tobias Demere Thomas, were accused of taking part in a gun battle at Shy Manor apartments in Northwest Moultrie that left 26-year-old Alvin Hunt dead.

The trial judge in Colquitt County Superior Court, a retired Doughtery County judge, dismissed one charge against Thomas in connection with that slaying and he was found not guilty on the others. However, he was found guilty of murder in the fatal shooting of 41-year-old Bernardino Perez, who was gunned down April 25, 2009, at a mobile home park on Sardis Church Road. Thomas received a life prison sentence.

Daniels was found guilty of murder and received a life sentence in Hunt’s slaying.

Jurors found Fuller not guilty of murder in Hunt’s death, but did find him guilty of aggravated assault. Because Fuller was a third-time felon, the judge was required by law to impose a 20-year sentence; however, 15 years were to be served on probation.

The April 23 shooting victim was not associated with that case, but he had an aggravated assault conviction and was charged in another non-fatal shooting.

Huntley pleaded guilty in 2014 to an aggravated assault charge in the May 11, 2013 non-fatal shooting of 25-year-old Brenton Miller, and prosecutors dismissed a charge of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Miller was struck by two bullets while parked in the daytime in his car outside the apartment complex.

A Colquitt County Superior Court judge sentenced Huntley to two years in the Colquitt County Correctional Institution, 10 years’ probation and fined him $2,000.

Prior to that occasion Huntley had no felony convictions, but in June 2016 police charged him in another shooting that again was not fatal.

Huntley was accused of shooting Monterrius Haynes on June 18 with a shotgun at Third Street and Third Avenue Northwest, where several people had shot at Haynes on another occasion. He had bullets lodged in his head and elbow after the earlier attack.