A 23-year-old man was charged with the murder of his girlfriend and student of a Fort Valley State University in Georgia on Friday evening, police said. The arrest came on the same day he was granted bail for damages to the girl's property.
DeMarcus Little was charged with a fresh murder charge by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation hours after he was granted a $10,000 bail for criminal damage to property on Friday afternoon, according to the Associated Press.
New evidence that developed during Little's arrangement on Friday led to his arrest for the killing of Anitra Gunn, GBI Assistant Special Agent Todd Crosby was reported as saying.
Gunn was reported missing in an investigation that was led by the Fort Valley Police Department on February 14, 2020. Her body was found on Monday in a wooded area in Greer Road in Crawford County, Georgia. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) Medical Examiner's Office in Macon identified the body as Anitra Lashay Gunn on Wednesday. A day later, the GBI quoting autopsy results ruled the 22-year-old-student's death as a homicide. The cause of death is pending toxicology tests and has not yet been released.
Little's past aggression
She was an agriculture student at Fort Valley State University, Georgia. The university plans to hold a candlelight vigil for Gunn on Monday. While no new information has been released due to the ongoing investigation, the Fort Valley police had previously arrested Little for smashing the windows of Gunn's house and slashing the tires of her car earlier this month.
Little is a US Army soldier stationed at Fort Gordon. No information about his next court appearance has been released yet.
Tessa Majors
The incident took place days after two 14-year-olds were charged for the murder of Barnard College student Tessa Majors who was fatally stabbed in a robbery a few blocks away from her school. Luchiano Lewis was charged in Criminal Court in Manhattan with second-degree murder and robbery. His friend, Rashaun Weaver, was also arrested on the same charges over the weekend, according to reports.
Both are charged as an adult due to the severity of the crime and the international coverage of the incident. According to the New York State law, prosecutors said defendants as young as 14 can be tried as adults in certain violent crime cases.
The murder of Tessa Majors
Majors was stabbed on December 11, 2019, when she was walking through Morningside Park, blocks away from her college. A recently released criminal complaint described her struggling on a landing with three people and screaming, "Help me! I'm being robbed!." An investigation found that she managed to climb the flight of stairs to the street level and collapsed in a crosswalk.
A security guard then found her bleeding at the top of the staircase, and emergency services were called. She was rushed to Mount Sinai hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
