HOUSTON — A Dayton teenager, charged with the capital murder of a truck driver in Northeast Houston, turned himself into Louisiana authorities last week.
Diamond Markee Godfrey, 18, has been charged with capital murder in the 338th State District Court. Godfrey was arrested May 12 by Louisiana State Police in Ville Platte, LA, and is awaiting extradition back to Texas.
Police say that on April 30, Godfrey and another actor ambushed Robert Butler as he was parking a tractor-trailer in the 5400 block of Bennington. Butler, who was shot in the face, later died at Ben Taub General Hospital.
Police are also looking for a second suspect, Damion Mann, age 19. Mann has not been charged in the crime.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Mann is urged to contact the HPD Homicide Division at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.
Police said that Godfrey fled to Louisiana because he had family and friends in the Ville Platte area. There is a chance, however, that once Godfrey returns to Texas, officials in Louisiana may want to have more extended talks with him.
On May 11, the body of a missing teenager was found near Ville Platte. The victim was identified as 18-year-old Elizabeth Fontenot, who had been missing since May 10.
The Evangeline Paris Sheriff’s Office says that the Ville Platte Fire Department reported finding her green Mustang on fire. The body was found in a nearby barn with much of the clothing missing and heavy amounts of blood nearby.
The cause of death has not been determined.
Louisiana State Troopers say that they have not confirmed a connection between the two cases, but that on the day of Fontenot’s disappearance, Godfrey was believed to have been in the area as more than 50 law enforcement officers from Texas and Louisiana searched for him.
For a town of just more than 8,000 residents the death of one of their own and a manhunt for a suspected capital murderer was just too much of a coincidence.