'Slap in the face': Alexis Crawford's family outraged over possible bond for murder suspect
DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - The family of a murdered Clark Atlanta student is outraged after receiving notice that one of her accused killers may receive bond.
Barron Brantley is charged with murder in connection with the 2019 death of 21-year-old Alexis Crawford.
Crawford's body was found in a DeKalb County park along Columbia Drive on Nov. 8, one week after her family reported her missing. Days later, police charged Crawford's friend and roommate, Jordyn Jones, and Brantley, who was Jones' boyfriend, with the woman's murder.
In court documents, authorities say that Crawford and Jones got into a physical fight at their off-campus apartment on McDaniel Street Southwest. Police think Brantley got involved in the fight and, according to the documents, choked Crawford with his hands until she stopped breathing.
A second arrest warrant accuses Jones of smothering Crawford with a black trash bag until she stopped breathing and died. Police believe afterward Jones and Brantley put Crawford's body in a plastic bin and took her to a wooded area in the park where she was found.
Alexis Crawford (Courtesy of the family)
"Ms. Jones was an active part of the murder of Ms. Crawford, helped clean the apartment, and helped stuff Ms. Crawford into a large Rubbermaid bin used for storage or packing things. They put the bin in a vehicle and left her body in the bin in Exchange Park," Fulton County Deputy District Attorney Adam Abbate told a judge during a hearing in 2019. "After the death or murder of Ms. Crawford, (Jones) continued to text Ms. Crawford's phone, knowing that her and the defendant had turned the phone off, asking Ms. Crawford where she was like she was worried."
Court records show Brantley is expected to head before a Fulton County judge for a bond hearing Friday. The hearing has now been postponed until later in March.
In response to the news, Crawford's mother Tammy Crawford released a statement saying that granting the man bond would be a "slap in the face" to her family and "essentially spit on Alexis' grace."
Barron Brantley (Atlanta Police Department) (Atlanta Police Department)
"When I learned that Barron was seeking a bond again, I knew we had to speak up and out because the monsters that murdered Alexis should not ever get out of jail - under any circumstances. I cannot imagine a judge finding it just or safe to grant Barron the freedom to walk around and be with his family while Alexis lies in a lonely grave," Crawford wrote in a statement.
Both Jones and Brantley have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and concealing a death.
Brantley was set to go before a judge