Police arrest suspects in Holiday Apartments shooting

Published 12:04 am Saturday, June 27, 2015

NATCHEZ — The two men wanted for a fatal shooting at Holiday Apartments last Friday are in police custody.

Antonio K. Clay, 20, 104 Dumas Drive, turned himself in to Natchez Police Friday morning, Natchez Police Investigator Jerry Ford said.

Clay’s brother, Lee Raymond Smith, 19, 111 Crown Court, is also wanted in the matter. Smith was arrested in Houston late last night.

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The two men are suspects in the June 19 shooting of Jamarius Jackson, 20.

Jackson was leaning on a car outside Holiday Apartments on Old Washington Road when he was shot twice. He was transported to Merit Health Natchez, but died later that evening.

Police said this week Jackson had reportedly had a previous disagreement with the suspects.

According to investigators, Smith allegedly borrowed a vehicle from a friend and picked up Clay before driving to the apartments to resume the disagreement with Jackson.

The brothers reportedly drove by Jackson and opened fire.

The victim then likewise reportedly grabbed a gun and returned fire at the brothers, and investigators said they were able to link the brothers to the shooting because of the dents bullets left in the car.

Clay was previously a person of interest in a 2011 shooting at the Natchez mall. His case was taken to a grand jury twice —once for conspiracy to commit murder and once for accessory after the fact to murder — but both indictments were eventually dismissed and the cases never prosecuted.

In that case, Lee Raymond Smith — not the same Lee Raymond Smith who is suspected in the Jackson murder, though he is a relative — pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.