The Dalton Police Department arrested Aaron Howell, 26, Wednesday morning on a charge of homicide in connection with the December, 2014 murder of Paul Guerrant.
Howell was taken into custody without incident at an abandoned house behind the Walmart on East Walnut Avenue. Howell does not currently have an address.
At 9:37 p.m. on Dec. 22, 2014, Paul Guerrant was found lying in the middle of Dozier Street clinging to life after being severely beaten.
He was transported to Hamilton Medical Center and then later to Erlanger in Chattanooga before being pronounced dead. The coroner’s office later determined that the cause of Mr. Guerrant’s death was blunt force trauma from multiple blows to the head. Mr. Guerrant had been walking home from a meeting at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church when he was attacked.
In January, Dalton detectives began to investigate Howell’s involvement in the killing after a tip from a concerned citizen indicating that Howell was the killer. The tip led to physical evidence that was collected and sent off to the crime lab for processing.
After the evidence was examined by the crime lab, investigators corroborated what they’d been told and obtained a warrant for Howell’s arrest on Tuesday. That warrant was served Wednesday morning.