Antonio Wright
The man who was charged in a case in which a girl jumped from a car is now facing murder charges.
Antonio Wright, 50, is being charged with criminal homicide.
The homicide charges are in connection with a case that occurred last Saturday at the 1700 block of Jackson Street.
Police said when they went to check on 65-year-old Ralph Jarrett, they found a side door to his residence open. He was located on the floor of the living room with multiple stab wounds. There were bloody footprints going to the side door.
Police said the last phone call with Jarrett began at 2:40 a.m.
Video showed a silver Chevrolet Malibu pull up at his residence at 5:26 a.m. A heavy-set black male wearing a white t-shirt exited the driver's door. Four minutes later, the Malibu left at a high rate of speed.
A red Ford F-150 drove by the residence at 7:21 a.m., then pulled back up at 7:32 a.m. when the passenger door appeared to open.
Other video from Jackson Street showed a spare tire on the rear passenger side of the Ford F-150, and there was distinctive damage to the rear quarter panel.
On Wednesday, detectives located a silver Chrovlet Malibu parked at the gated back lot of the Police Service Center. It had heavy damage and a spare tire on the passenger side.
The vehicle had been brought there after Wright was involved in a police chase after the girl had jumped from his car. The vehicle was registered to Antonio Wright.
Detective spoke with a witness who said Wright had confessed to killing Jarrett. He said Wright stated that they got into an argument over paying for drugs, and he picked up a knife from the victim's kitchen counter and stabbed him.
The witness, who said he drives a Ford F-150, said he took Wright to the Jarrett residence on Saturday morning around daylight and came back to pick him up. He said Wright had a bag of narcotics when he got back in the pickup truck.
The witness said he told Wright he should speak with police. He said Wright stated, "I'm not going back to prison. They'll have to kill me."
Detectives interviewed Wright on Wednesday, and initially he denied being at the victim's residence on Saturday.
Wright, who has an extensive criminal record, then admitted he had gone to the victim's house to get drugs.