• Publication: The Red and Black (University of Georgia student newspaper)
• Author: Melanie Thomas, Staff Writer
• Original Publication Date: Tuesday, October 20, 1992

The Athens-Clarke County District Attorney’s office will dismiss charges against two of the three suspects charged with possessing the stolen cameras of slain University senior Jennifer Stone, said assistant District Attorney Rick Dickson.

Athens residents Ernest Brown Jr., 29, and Donald R. Wilson, 32, were charged with retaining two cameras stolen from Stone’s Hull Street apartment.

Charges against the two will be dropped because of lack of evidence, said Dickson.

Other suspects under investigation in the Stone case include a 19-year-old man currently serving 30 days in Athens-Clarke County jail for underage possession of alcohol. The suspect is also charged with jumping bail, and his bond is set for $25,000.

Police brought the suspect in from Shreveport, LA after his name came up several times during the investigation.

Larry Darnell Brown, the third suspect charged in conjunction with the camera possession, hasn’t been tried yet.

Police alleged the three suspects obtained the cameras hours after Stone’s slaying, but Dickson told Judge Joseph Gaines the cases against Brown and Wilson were weak.

Dickson said there was no evidence suggesting Wilson was involved in the theft of the cameras, and wouldn’t comment on the dismissal of Brown’s charges.

The cameras were found during searches for drugs in two Athens apartments in early July, and the three men were later charged with retaining stolen goods.

Sgt. Gerald Guntharp said the three men were under investigation in connection with the Stone case, but DNA samples taken from them didn’t match evidence left at the crime scene.

Guntharp said police will continue to question the three suspects regarding the Stone case. He said results from DNA samples also had eliminated seven other suspects by Monday.

“Just because the DNA evidence (of the three) doesn’t match up only means they didn’t leave that part of the evidence,” Guntharp said. “I still think they’re holding something back. They had the cameras, and they tell us they got them from some ‘dude.’ ”

The three suspects were reportedly cooperating with police in the investigation, and set detectives onto another suspect’s trail.

An investigator within the department will travel to Houston, Texas today to acquire a blood sample from a suspect for DNA tests, said Guntharp.

One of the two dismissed suspects gave the police a profile of the person from whom they obtained the cameras.

The description matched a man in Houston.

[Photo caption] Jennifer Stone (File)