Two men have been charged in the shooting death of a man who was found gravely injured while he was seeking help in Alabama last week, according to reports.
43-year-old Dustin Harry Stanfield and 33-year-old Joshua Corey Guthrie are charged with capital murder and kidnapping in connection with the slaying of 43-year-old David Wayne Nicholas two days before Christmas.
Court records made public Thursday indicate a third person is wanted. Crime Stoppers of Metro Alabama said 33-year-old Brittany Michelle Patterson is also wanted on the same charges.
Charging documents stated Nicholas was killed when the suspects did knowingly attempt to abduct or injure or sexually violate the victim, as well as a female victim who survived.
East Precinct officers were dispatched just before midnight that Saturday to a report of a person shot in the 1400 block of Lake Lane N.E in Birmingham.
Officers arrived to find Nicholas wounded. Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service pronounced Nicholas dead on the scene at 12:53 a.m.
Police said Nicholas was assaulted at a home in that neighborhood. He was then able to leave the house and seek help from nearby residents.
Both suspects were booked into the Jefferson County Jail on Dec. 26 and remain held without bond.
It wasn’t immediately clear where Stanfield was arrested.
Guthrie, however, was captured the following day by Leeds police officers at the Walmart Supercenter on Whitfield Avenue in Leeds.
Leeds Chief Paul Irwin said the homicide victim’s “significant other” was taken when Nicholas was killed. Police recovered her unharmed from Guthrie’s vehicle when he was arrested.
Authorities said those involved knew each other. One of the suspects is the ex-boyfriend of the woman kidnapped.
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