Columbus police charge woman with murder in 2008 cold case
Columbus police announced Wednesday that they have cleared a 12-year-old homicide case.
They have a suspect in the April 2, 2008, slaying of Paul Hill Sr., 67, Chief Freddie Blackmon told reporters during a news conference at the Public Safety Center.
Shanita Evette Wyatt, 40, faces a murder charge in the case. She has been held in the Muscogee County Jail since May 2020 on unrelated charges.
According to previous Ledger-Enquirer reports, Hill lived at Apt. C, 3330 Marathon Drive, where his son went to check on Hill around 2 p.m., having not seen his father since Easter.
Blackmon said Wednesday that patrol officers were called there at 2:05 p.m. for a “welfare check,” and had to force the locked door open to get in. They found Hill’s body, and called a deputy coroner who pronounced Hill dead at 2:41 p.m.
Then-Coroner Bill Thrower later said Hill appeared to have died from blunt force trauma and gunshot wounds to the head.
Hill had cuts on his head and face, authorities said.
Wyatt, also known to use the last names Cannon and Dukes, is to have a preliminary hearing in Columbus Recorder’s Court at 9 a.m. Friday.
Blackmon declined to give any motive for Hill’s slaying, but investigators said she and Hill were familiar with each other.
Law enforcement officers also were familiar with the suspect.
‘A history’
“There is a history the suspect has,” Blackmon said. “There have been other charges, unrelated charges.”
Under the name Shanita Cannon, she was charged in an April 18, 2017, shooting at Columbus’ Andrews Court Apartments, though investigators chose to drop that case when it went to Recorder’s Court.
Besides aggravated assault, she was charged with being a convicted felon with a firearm, before those counts were dismissed.
The Ledger-Enquirer reported then that Wyatt, who used the street name “Cookie” and had it tattooed on her right arm, had been arrested twice before for prostitution, in November 2015 and again in February 2017, in the North Lumpkin Road area.
According to Muscogee County Jail records, she most recently was booked May 21, 2020, on charges of trafficking in cocaine and violating the Georgia Controlled Substances Act.
The detective
This is the second time this year that cold-case detective Stuart Carter has charged a suspect in a years-old homicide.
After police announced in September that Carter was pursuing new leads in the 2003 slaying of Albert Carter Woolfolk, who was found stabbed and beaten in his Habersham Avenue home, Carter secured a warrant Dec. 30 charging Alvin Shane Barfield in the 17-year-old case.
U.S. Marshals arrested Barfield at his Myrtle Beach, South Carolina home on Jan. 21, and the 47-year-old waived extradition in a court hearing the next day. In a Recorder’s Court hearing on Feb. 5, Carter testified police had collected a fingerprint from a TV cable box found on the floor in Woolfolk’s home, and later matched it to Barfield, whose prints had not been filed in a law enforcement database in 2003.
After Wednesday’s news conference, Carter said he first was assigned to Hill’s case in 2016, but was not devoted solely to cold cases at the time, having more current homicides to investigate.
When the rate of homicides here abruptly increased in 2017, Carter had to set the cold case aside to keep up with the mounting workload, he said.
Carter retired in 2019, but the department brought him back as a reserve officer, working part-time on older cases.
“At that time, there were two cases I picked up right off the bat,” he said. “The first one was this case, Paul Hill.” He started reviewing in January 2020, and followed leads for seven months, interviewing any witnesses he could find.
Police considered taking it straight to a grand jury for indictment last year, but decided instead to get a warrant while Wyatt still was in jail, he said, adding, “We’re still investigating the case.”
Other suspects may have been involved, he said.
‘That comforting feeling’
Cold cases are more of a challenge because unlike the current ones, he has no control over the crime scene or what evidence was collected, and he has to track down whatever witnesses still can be found, and have not since died or disappeared.
But it’s worth the effort to feel the gratitude from the victims’ families, he said.
“Sometimes just hearing from us, and letting us know they’re sitting at home, week after week, month after month, not knowing, ‘Hey, are they doing anything today?’” he said.
“So the more I can stay in correspondence with them, and let them know, hey, we’re going down this road on a case, or hey, this lead came up, it makes them feel good. At least they have that comforting feeling of knowing someone does care, someone’s working on the case.”
In Hill’s case, Wyatt’s name came up early in the 2008 investigation, so he already had that lead to follow, he said.
Other cases aren’t so fleshed out, he said, noting he has a 1974 homicide file that’s just a few pages of reports and nine Polaroid pictures. He declined to name the victim.
DNA testing and other newer technology can help solve old cases, if the evidence is properly secured, but so can witnesses who remember what happened, he said.
Hundreds were questioned in Hill’s case, and at least eight gave statements to police, he said:
“Every blue moon, the right person comes forward, and says, ‘Hey, I’m ready to tell the story.’”
This story was originally published February 17, 2021 at 12:42 PM.