Local & State Headlines

Murder suspects indicted

• Three women stripped to distract men before a fatal robbery, court records say.

J.D. Sumner

ALBANY — Jarvis Yarn, indicted last week for murder, killed a man for a five-dollar bill in what prosecutors say was a botched robbery, court documents show.

Yarn, Kyinde Bellamy, Nicole Brown and LaKesha Flewellen were named in a 14-count indictment stemming from the March 7 slaying of Manuel Montanes at a residence in the Westwind Apartment Complex off Dawson Road, court records show.

Yarn, who investigators say was the trigger man, was charged with conspiracy, malice murder, two counts of felony murder, armed robbery and aggravated assault. The three women were each indicted on conspiracy, two counts of being parties to the crime of felony murder, armed robbery and three counts of aggravated assault, the indictment shows.

Montanes, his brother Celerio, and Ricardo Mendez were all robbed at gunpoint before Manuel Montanes was shot, the indictment states. Yarn made off with only $5 in cash, according to court records.

The indictment charges that the three women conspired with Yarn to distract the men by stripping before Yarn entered the apartment armed with a 9 mm handgun.

The women were arrested immediately after the shooting. Yarn, however, was arrested April 16, when the Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office received a tip that he was hiding in Jacksonville, Fla., investigators said.

SWAT team members stormed a room at the Victory Pointe Apartment Complex, where they arrested Yarn without incident, Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Melissa Bujeda said.

“With any high profile arrest or someone wanted for murder, we call out our SWAT team to make the arrest,” Bujeda said. “He was arrested without incident.”

Yarn was taken back to the homicide office at Jacksonville’s Police Memorial Building, where he was interviewed by Albany Police Department detectives.

After his interview, he was taken to the Duval County Pre-trial Detention Center, before being extradited back to Albany.

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