Local & State Headlines

2 arrested in slaying

• A January homicide has not been linked to the victim's role as witness in a separate case, police say.

Joshua Brown

ALBANY — Albany Police Department officers arrested two men Wednesday in connection with a January killing for which the motive may have been robbery, the department announced Thursday.

Antonio Seay, 18, and Kentrell Barney, 20, were arrested at about 7 p.m. Wednesday after the Robbery/Homicide and Tactical units served search and arrest warrants on their homes at 303 Elsom Street and 1216 E. First Ave., APD Capt. Charlie Poole said.

The two were charged in the warrants with the murder of John Lewis Barbre, who was found beaten outside the Tallulah Massey Library on Stratford Drive Jan. 15.

Barbre died two days later at Phoebe PUtney Memorial Hospital from blunt-force trauma to the head. Investigators had speculated that he was beaten and perhaps thrown from a car.

Barney had been wanted for questioning in the case and has been indicted for making false statements to police during questioning about the incident.

Poole remained tightlipped with the details of the case during a Thursday news conference but said that robbery was a possible motive behind Barbre's death and that both of the arrestees knew Barbre and each other.

Barbre was a witness in the Jack Camp homicide case, but Poole said the department didn't have anything to link his death with his role as a witness in the case.

A Dougherty County jailer said Thursday that both Seay and Barney were being held in the jail on a single murder charge each with no bond set. There have been six homicides in Albany thus far in 2008.

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