TIFTON — A Tifton man was murdered in his home, another was stabbed at Wal-Mart and another reported being robbed at the Carson Motel over the weekend.

John Towns, 52, was found unresponsive and lying in a pool of blood early Saturday morning at his residence at 207 W. 19th St. Investigators with the Tift County Sheriff’s Department are continuing to investigate the case and had little information to give Monday.

Capt. Mike Walker said that an autopsy is being performed on Towns’ body to “conclusively determine the cause of death.

“There were signs of forced entry,” Walker said. “I think at this juncture it would be premature and speculative to try to assign a motive to the case.”

Walker said Towns was the only person at the residence when police arrived and no one else was injured during the incident.

A 17-year-old Tifton man remains hospitalized after he was stabbed with a pair of scissors in Wal-Mart Sunday night. Another man reported he was robbed at gun- and knife-point by two unidentified men early Monday morning. Two women have been arrested and charged with armed robbery in that case.

According to Lt. Porter Jackson of the Tifton Police Department’s criminal investigation division, Mario Alberto Martinez, 17, of Omega, was stabbed in the back and remains hospitalized at Tift Regional Medical Center. Information on his condition was not released Monday. Detectives are continuing to investigate the incident to determine if the act was gang-related.

“We don’t know what sparked it and we are continuing to investigate to see if there is any gang connection,” Jackson said.

According to the incident report, an officer arrived to find a group of Wal-Mart employees pointing and stating that someone had been stabbed and then the victim had gotten up and run away. When officers caught up with Martinez, they saw that he had been stabbed once in the back on the left side. Emergency medical responders arrived and transported Martinez to Tift Regional Medical Center. A Hispanic male juvenile was arrested and charged in the case and more charges could be pending against others involved.

Martinez told officers that he and his cousin were in Wal-Mart when they ran into two other men they said were SUR 13 gang members.

In an unrelated incident at 12:45 a.m. Monday at the Carson Motel on Seventh Street, a 54-year-old man told the reporting officer that a girl he knew had been calling him all night wanting “to perform a trick so she could make some extra money.” The man told the officer that he ignored the calls because he was tired, but he finally decided to give in and let the girl and a female friend of hers come over.

He reported that the girls arrived at approximately 12:30 a.m. Monday and asked him if he would go to McDonald’s and get some food. He reported that he noticed one of the girls going to the motel room door and opening it while she was texting someone on her cell phone. He said she did that two or three times and the last time she did it, two black males pushed their way into the room. He said the men pushed the girl away from the door and one pointed a knife and the other a gun at him.

The man said the men ordered him to sit on the bed and not to move or they would kill him. He reported that the two females were asking the men not to harm him. The victim said that the taller of the two men then called the girls by their names and ordered them to “get up and get the stuff.” He told police the girls then started grabbing boxes of merchandise that was in the room and running out the door with it. The shorter of the two men then demanded the victim give him the keys to his van so he could take merchandise from the vehicle, but when the man got outside he couldn’t figure out which key opened the van and he saw there was nothing inside the van. The man went back inside the room and threw the keys back on the bed next to the victim. One of the men then asked where his money was and the victim reported that he told the man that he didn’t have any money. At that time, one of the men searched the man’s pockets and his wallet.

The victim reported that the two men began making a lot of noise at which time he told them that the police would be there any minute. He said the men and girls ran toward a white truck parked down the street from his room on College Avenue and that the man driving the truck started backing up the road and got to the intersection of Third Street and College Avenue and traveled east, going back towards downtown Tifton. The victim said he jumped in his van and tried to catch up with them but he lost them on Third Street.

Kanitra Torche Alexander, 18, 812 Armour Road, and Vankeisha Yvette Brown, 27, 822 Armour Road, were arrested Monday morning and each charged with armed robbery. TPD detectives are continuing their investigation and are looking for the two men believed to be involved in the incident.



To contact senior reporter Angie Thompson, call 382-4321.