By Joe Johnson
A Clarke County grand jury this week indicted two purported street gang members for the alleged murder of a man in last year in east Athens.
Philmon Deshawn Chambers, 30, of Dunwoody and Andrea Paige Browner, 24, of Athens were each charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and sic count of violating the Georgia Street Gang Terrorism Prevention Act, according to the indictment filed Tuesday in Clarke County Superior Court.
They are accused of participating in the killing 32-year-old Rodriguez Apollo Rucker on Dec. 14 outside his home on Royal Court.
The defendants were both members of the Gangster Disciples gang, the indictment states.
Four days after Rucker was killed, two Athens men with purported ties to the Gangster Disciples went missing and their bodies were found three months later in a rental storage unit in Gwinnett County.
Chambers and four other alleged gang members were indicted in Gwinnett for the alleged murders of the two 25-year-old men, Derrick Ruff and Joshua Jackson.
According to Athens-Clarke County police and court documents, Rucker was fatally shot by gunfire that allegedly came from a truck driven by Chambers, soon after Rucker had met Browner for sex at Days Inn on North Finley Street.
Browner had checked into a room there with a phone number that was registered to Chambers, a police search warrant stated.
After using to use the Lyft ride service to return home, police said that Chambers was killed by gunfire that came from Chamber’s pickup, which surveillance camera video showed had followed the Lyft vehicle to where Rucker was dropped off on Royal Court.
Athens-Clarke police said they later determined from pinging the suspects’ cellphones that Browner and Chambers had fled to Texas, where they were arrested in March by local police and extradited back to Georgia.