U.S. Marshal’s Service arrests home invasion suspect

ALBANY — The Dougherty County Police Department announced Wednesday that another suspect is now in custody, thanks to the help of the U.S. Marshal’s Service, in connection to the brutal home invasion/attempted murder that occurred June 15 on Gravel Hill Road and left homeowner and victim Francis Wetherbee paralyzed.

“We got Kareem Williams,” Dougherty County Police Department’s Captain Tom Jackson said Wednesday afternoon. “We have been working with the U.S. Marshal’s Service Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force, who reached out to the Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force in Ocala, and they picked Williams up.”

Williams, 20, has been a suspect in the case since August when fellow suspect John Bevon Mincey was arrested at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, Calif. Mincey, a former employee of Wetherbee’s, was also wanted in connection to the attack.

“Mincey used to be an employee of the Wetherbees,” DCP Lt. Stephen Mitchum told The Albany Herald on Aug. 26. “We have been keeping the family updated on the progress of the investigation and the information that we have been getting. I will say that information that led us to Mincey did come in on a tip.”

A tip also led DCP investigators to the location of Williams, Jackson confirmed Wednesday.

“We have been continuously working this investigation since the incident occurred back in June,” Jackson said. “A tip led us to believe that Mincey was located in Ocala, Florida, so we reached out to the Marshal’s Service.”

According to the original reports about the incident, at 2:13 p.m. June 16, officers were dispatched to 4602 Gravel Hill Road in reference to a shooting. When officers arrived on the scene, they found Wetherbee lying face-down on the back porch of his residence with at least one visible gunshot wound.

“Francis Wetherbee stated that there were four or five people in his residence at an unknown time on June 15,” the report said. “Francis Wetherbee was only able to confirm the subjects shot him and took his 2007 gun-metal blue Toyota Tundra and also a black Anderson trailer.”

Wetherbee’s father, Frank, confirmed the attack, saying that his son had been beaten with a baseball bat before being shot twice by a group of five people consisting of three black men, one black woman and one white man. The suspects demanded that Wetherbee open his gun safe.

“They knew, or somebody had told them, that there was a gun safe in there,” Frank Wetherbee said. “They beat him bad, trying to make him open that safe. He (Francis) thinks that there were four guys and one woman involved. All were black except one white man. They shot him twice. The bullet just barely missed an artery, and he lay there for 12 to 14 hours before he was found at the house They left him for dead. Nobody knew it. He is paralyzed from the waist down, but he is alive.”

Acting on another tip, DCP investigators found Wetherbee’s gun safe, which was stolen the night the Dougherty County farmer was shot, in a wooded east Albany location.

Since that time, the case has begun to progress again after a period of stagnation, according to Jackson.

“Williams was picked up without incident,” Jackson said. “He tried to lie to the Marshals, denying that he was Williams, but they already knew it was him. Williams will be held there in Ocala while we begin the process to have him extradited. It is important for people to understand these cases take time, but we are continuing to investigate and bring these suspects to justice.”

According to Jackson, Williams is facing nine felony charges, the most serious being aggravated assault and home invasion.