Eric Payton Thomas Jr., 21, was found dead of a gunshot wound inside his vehicle in a Macon parking lot at 2241 Montpelier Avenue just before 8 p.m. on Friday, June 16, 2023. The deputy coroner pronounced him dead at the scene and the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office opened a homicide investigation.

Investigators identified two suspects. On June 20, 2023, 17-year-old Marcello Morvon Williams was arrested and charged with murder and jailed without bond. A second arrest came on September 6, 2023, when 18-year-old Darrell Lester Wilson III was taken into custody with the assistance of the U.S. Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force and charged with murder; he faced additional outstanding Bibb County warrants and was denied bond.

The circumstances of Thomas’s death remain under investigation. If anyone has information about what happened, please come forward to the authorities.