Charges have been placed in the fatal shooting of a Roanoke man last winter.
Durwin Alexander Horsley, 19, of Lynchburg was indicted Monday on one count of first-degree murder and one count of using a firearm to commit murder.
Horsley is charged in the death of Daniel Franklin Liptak, 56, whom police have said was found Dec. 7 in the front yard of a house on Patterson Avenue, in the Mountain View neighborhood.
Liptak had been shot in the lower body and was conscious when he was taken to the hospital, but he was pronounced dead a little more than a half-hour later, shortly before 7 a.m., police said.
Witnesses told investigators they saw two males running from the scene.
A search warrant filed late last year in Roanoke Circuit Court said a cellphone was found at the site of the shooting and was searched.
“Phone data has been recovered which shows communication between two numbers which appear to be discussing narcotics and money transactions in the days prior to the homicide,” the warrant said, although it did not specify who owned the phone.
Earlier this year, additional search warrants were filed in the case, seeking information regarding the Facebook accounts of two individuals; police were tipped off by a suspect held out of the Roanoke area, the warrants said.
According to Roanoke Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney John McNeil, Horsley is currently in custody in the Washington, D.C., area. It is unclear what his charges are in that locality.
A second man also been charged in relation to the case, McNeil said. Kristopher Ryan White, also of Lynchburg, was charged last month with attempted robbery. White has a preliminary hearing in Roanoke set for Thursday.