ShareHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
FORT WORTH — More than nine months after a Fort Worth bar owner was fatally shot during a robbery, authorities have charged four people, including a waitress at the club.
Byron Dealle Roquemore, 27, Tyrone Nathaniel Lee, 26, and the waitress, Ashley D. Odom, 26, were charged Monday in the slaying of Willie Walker, owner of the New Start nightclub, 4505 Miller Ave.Roquemore and Odom were charged with murder, Lee with capital murder, Tarrant County court records show. Willie Mornel Thomas, 26, was arrested and charged last month with capital murder. According to Thomas’ arrest warrant affidavit, Detective Shane Drake received a tip that a Dallas man identified only as Deray was involved and that his girlfriend might work at the club.Drake and Detective Matt Barron interviewed Odom, who acknowledged that Deray Morgan, her boyfriend, picked her up after her shift at the club the night of the robbery and shooting. She said the couple left the club with a friend of Morgan’s whom police later identified as Roquemore.In an interview with detectives, Roquemore denied being in Fort Worth. But homicide Sgt. J.D. Thornton said investigators later developed information that Roquemore, Morgan and Thomas had discussed committing the robbery. Odom used her job to provide information for the robbery, Thornton said."The evidence shows that she had inside knowledge regarding the amount of money that was present at the business that she relayed to others," Thornton said.Investigators believe that Thomas and Lee robbed the club about closing time early Jan. 30 while Odom, Morgan and Roquemore waited outside."We’re still looking at the possibility that others were in accompaniment with" the suspects, Thornton said.Investigators believe that Thomas shot Walker multiple times during a struggle in the bar’s kitchen. The robbers then fled, leaving behind a .380-caliber handgun.According to the affidavit, ballistic tests later showed that Walker was shot by a gun found at the scene. DNA tests showed that Thomas could not be excluded as contributing to a mixed DNA profile obtained from the gun’s trigger, the affidavit states.Thomas, according to the affidavit, denied that he had been in Fort Worth that night. Cellphone records, however, indicated that he was in the area of the bar about the time of the shooting, the affidavit states.All four suspects remained jailed Tuesday. Odom was in the Mansfield Jail with bail set at $750,000. Roquemore and Lee, who were arrested in Dallas, remained in the Dallas County Jail, with bail set at $750,000 each.Thomas was in the Tarrant County Jail with bail set at $250,000.Thornton said police plan to seek a capital murder charge against Morgan, 30, who is in federal custody in Seagoville on unrelated charges.DEANNA BOYD, 817-390-7655
@Nyx.CommentBody@