Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct the victim’s name from Tyronne McKinnis to Marty Williams, after NOPD erroneously identified the victim and later corrected itself.
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - New documents obtained by Fox 8 reveal what led up to the arrest of a murder suspect accused of assaulting a 60-year-old man and leaving him to die.
One month after his 19th birthday, New Orleans Police arrest Joel Warren on one count of second-degree murder.
“This sounds like what we call an old Mike & Pete Special. Just like, take any 2 DAs, come in, try the case, and it should result in a conviction,” said Joe Raspanti, Fox 8 Legal Analyst.
The arrest came on Tuesday (Feb. 20). Court documents reveal police obtained surveillance footage of the homicide showing Warren sexually and physically assaulting a 60-year-old man for three hours before he died from his injuries.
The Orleans Parish coroner has since identified that victim as Marty Williams.
“Sounds like it’s going to be a slam dunk if they have a video of the murder happening. We don’t know, but this case looks pretty straightforward,” Raspanti said.
Outlined in the police report, the Orleans Parish Communications District first received an emergency medical call from an employee of United Refrigeration Incorporated, who reported seeing an unresponsive man covered in blood lying down in the business’s driveway in the 700 block of South Galvez off of Poydras Street.
Video from police shows Warren walking away from the crime scene.
Documents show officers found Williams lying on a field with his head resting on the rear driveway curb and a large amount of blood on the pavement.
EMS arrived on the scene, and doctors pronounced Williams dead on Feb. 9 just after 7 a.m. The incident was reclassified as a homicide.
“The police arrested him for second-degree murder. That’s not necessarily what he’s going to be charged with by the district attorney. It sounds to me like he could also be arrested for first-, second- or third-degree rape or some sort of sexual battery. And if that’s the case, if the murder occurred during the perpetration of this other specified type of crime, he can really be charged with first-degree murder, and that would expose him to a possible death penalty,” Raspanti said.
That will be up to the DA and, ultimately, a grand jury to decide what he will be charged with.
Warren told officers he observed himself in a surveillance video circulating on social media before stating that he was the subject pictured in the video.
Warren is being held at the Orleans Justice Center on a $300,000 bond.
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