Jaylin Stanford was a 16-year-old Black male with his whole life ahead of him. His mother, Kimberly Stanford, remembered him as a son she loved to hear from. Hours before he was killed, she called him during her lunch break. “He was like, 'Okay momma, I love you’ and I said, 'I love you too’ and that was the end of our conversation,” she recalled. His uncle, Freddie Mango, described Jaylin as a hard-working kid who was trying to make a better life for himself and his family. His mother said of her loss, “He is gone. I can’t touch him anymore, I can’t kiss him, I can’t tell him I love him.”
Shortly after 1 a.m. on May 6, 2020, Jaylin was a passenger in a white Honda Accord at the intersection of Turner Field Road and Meadow Drive in Albany, Georgia. The car was riddled with bullets in a sudden attack. When officers from the Albany Police Department arrived, they found Jaylin inside the vehicle, deceased from a gunshot wound.
Three other occupants were injured and transported to a local hospital for treatment: Emanuel Hill, 20; Shakeriah Harper, 21; and Lovell Mango, 18. A fifth person in the car, 18-year-old Willie Harris, was not physically harmed.
The Albany Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide and Gang Unit launched an investigation that quickly led to a series of arrests. Over the following months, police identified and apprehended numerous suspects. Martez Thomas was arrested on May 7. Warrants were issued for Rentavious Unterrious Lewis, also known as “Monsta,” in early June. By mid-June, police were also seeking Erek Cowan Bradley, Demitri Lumpkin, and Cortez Oats Jr. on murder warrants. Lumpkin was taken into custody in July. The final wanted suspect, Cortez Oats Jr., was apprehended by U.S. Marshals in Miami, Florida, in September 2020 and awaited extradition back to Georgia. Several others were also charged with aggravated assault, including Bobby Marquise Williams, Miquell Riccardo Barber, Jalen Young, and Roderick Freeman.
In December 2020, a Dougherty County Superior Court grand jury indicted 12 people in connection with Jaylin Stanford’s homicide. The indictment stated that several members of a criminal street gang known as the "Purp Gang" were involved. Rentavious Unterrious Lewis, Demitri Dequan Lumpkin, Martez Ulysses Thomas, Cortez Antonio Oats Jr., and Erek Cowan Bradley were among those charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and violations of the Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act. Seven other individuals were also indicted on related charges, including malice murder, obstruction, and hindering the apprehension of a criminal. As of December 2020, the case was proceeding through the court system.
