Heath Jackson homicide: Falcons jersey ties murder suspect to burglary
An autographed Atlanta Falcons jersey was among the evidence tying the man accused of killing Columbus disc jockey Heath Jackson to an Aug. 6 burglary and armed robbery on 15th Avenue, police testified Thursday in Recorder’s Court.
Investigators said that among the property Ricardo Strozier took from the home, after tying the resident up with a sheet and blindfolding him, were several Atlanta Falcons jerseys bearing players’ numbers. They said Strozier told the victim he also was a Falcons fan, and among the evidence they’ve since collected are photographs of Strozier and friends wearing the jerseys.
Police said the resident was able to identify the jerseys, particularly one a player had autographed.
According to testimony Thursday morning, the victim had left his home for about 20 minutes that day to run errands, and when he returned about 2 p.m. and started to enter a rear door, he noticed a window beside it was open.
That’s when Strozier came to the window with a gun and ordered the man to climb in, police said. He tied the victim up, put the man’s dog in a dishwasher, packed up what he intended to take and made a cell phone call for someone to come pick him up, investigators said.
Soon after an accomplice came by to get the goods, the victim learned someone had tried to use a credit card three times that was taken in the burglary, officers said.
Strozier, 21, was arrested Sept. 8, the day after Jackson was fatally shot at his 1667 Carter Ave. home.
That incident also occurred in the afternoon, between 1 and 1:30 p.m.
Police have said it is not uncommon for burglars to hit residences during the day when homeowners typically are at work.
The day Jackson was shot, witnesses reported seeing a black man with shoulder-length dreadlocks wearing a white, sleeveless T-shirt fleeing the area. The victim Aug. 6 gave the same description of his robber.
“He said he was wearing a white ‘wife beater’ at the time of the incident,” Cpl. Drew Tyner told Judge Michael Cielinski, using a popular term for a man’s tank top.
The 45-year-old victim called police after seeing Strozier’s photo in reports of the suspect’s arrest in the Jackson case and told detectives it was the same man who robbed him. In court Thursday, the resident said he had “no doubt” it was Strozier.
Tyner said police have not yet tracked down Strozier’s accomplice. Detectives expect to clear more burglaries as they continue to sort out the evidence collected in an early morning raid on Strozier’s apartment at 213 16th St., just east of Columbus’ Second Avenue bridge.
Though the suspect reportedly had been frequenting the Lakebottom Park area where Jackson was killed, the Aug. 6 case occurred in the 4200 block of 15th Avenue, which is one block east of Hamilton Road and about three blocks south of the Manchester Expressway. A flat-screen TV also was stolen there, according to a police report.
After the 20-minute hearing, Cielinski set bonds of $50,000 each on Strozier’s charges of burglary and possessing a firearm while committing a crime and ordered the suspect held without bond on an armed robbery charge. Strozier already was being held without bond on a murder charge from the Jackson homicide.
This story was originally published September 17, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Heath Jackson homicide: Falcons jersey ties murder suspect to burglary."