Columbus murder suspect charged in 2018 New Year’s Day shooting dies in jail
A Columbus man charged three years ago with killing a longtime friend and wounding her daughter at a New Year’s Eve party has died in jail.
Tommy McNeal was terminally ill and had been returned to the Muscogee County Jail just a few days after spending about a week in the hospital, where doctors decided they could do no more for him, said former Sheriff Donna Tompkins, who left office Dec. 31. The sheriff’s office runs the jail.
She said a hospice care nurse was visiting McNeal in jail before he died the day after Christmas. He was 68 years old. Jail records noted the time of his “release” as 10:20 a.m.
He had been held on charges of murder, being a convicted felon with a firearm, theft by receiving stolen property and two counts of aggravated assault, records showed.
Shot through the door
On Dec. 31, 2017, McNeal was 65 years old with a Tennessee police officer’s murder on his record when he went to a New Year’s Eve party hosted by Nancy Johnson, 63, whom he’d known for about 25 years.
According to court testimony, McNeal three times tried to join the celebration at Johnson’s home in the 2900 block of Colorado Street. On the third try, the intoxicated, belligerent and unwelcome guest got into a dispute, and Johnson kicked him out.
He stumbled as she pushed him outside, then turned and fired three shots through the closed door, with bullets hitting Johnson in the leg and torso. police said. When Johnson’s 44-year-old daughter went outside to confront him, he shot her in the right leg, witnesses said.
Johnson was pronounced dead about an hour later. Her daughter was treated and released from the hospital.
SWAT team summoned
Police called shortly after midnight found McNeal had fled. Around 4 p.m. Jan. 3, 2018, officers got a tip that the suspect, still armed with a gun, was inside a home on Kendrick Avenue.
Learning McNeal had been convicted of killing a police officer, investigators summoned a SWAT team and a negotiator to talk him into surrendering. His handgun, a .45-caliber Smith & Wesson reported stolen the previous Dec. 5, was found inside the residence.
McNeal was convicted in the March 17, 1975, murder of Officer Hugh Everette Eubanks of Bolivar, Tennessee, who was dispatched to a domestic dispute where McNeal shot him three times in the chest with a .30-06 rifle. Though McNeal was sentenced to life in prison, he was paroled in 1982.
Columbus court records showed he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault here in 2001, based on allegations he hit a man over the head with a gun while taking his wallet. Sentenced to 15 years in prison with five to serve, he was paroled in March 2005.
This story was originally published January 4, 2021 at 4:31 PM.