HICKMAN COUNTY, Tenn. (WTVF) — Four people were charged in the cold case Paul JR Hayward, who was killed in 2015.
Lindsey Barnes, Jamie Swarthout, Mustafa Slater, Tramell Sparkman were charged with first degree murder, robbery and kidnapping Friday.
Hayward was found shot to death along Highway 230 in Hickman County on Dec. 27, 2015. His vehicle was found the next day at a bar located in Columbia.
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation officials say Hayward was the target of a planned robbery attempt and that all four individuals were responsible for his death.
On Feb. 5, the Hickman County Grand Jury returned indictments against each of them. Below is a breakdown of their charges.
- Lyndsey Barnes (DOB 09/11/1998): Two counts First Degree Murder, one count Attempted Robbery, one count Aggravated Kidnapping, one count Robbery Conspiracy. Currently held in the Hickman County Jail.
- Jamie Swarthout (DOB 02/25/1993): Two counts First Degree Murder, one count Attempted Robbery, one count Aggravated Kidnapping, one count Robbery Conspiracy. Currently held in the Maury County Jail on unrelated charges.
- Mustafa Slater (DOB 01/25/1996): Two counts First Degree Murder, one count Attempted Robbery, one count Aggravated Kidnapping, one count Robbery Conspiracy, one count Employment of a Firearm during Dangerous Felony. Currently held in the Maury County Jail on unrelated charges.
- Tramell Sparkman (DOB 04/26/1989). Two counts First Degree Murder, one count Attempted Robbery, one count Aggravated Kidnapping, one count Robbery Conspiracy, one count Employment of a Firearm during Dangerous Felony, one count Possession of Weapon by Convicted Felon. Currently held in the Davidson County Jail on unrelated charges.
"I would say its a relief," Cassie Shockley, Hayward's sister, said on the phone Friday evening. "Relief that this isn't going to happen to anybody else's family, and that things are finally moving forward in my brother's case."
"It's still a shock to me now that this even happened to him, let alone that now we're moving forward with his case," Shockley continued. "It devastated our entire family."
All four suspects were already behind bars for unrelated charges. Sparkman is currently jailed in Nashville and facing charges related to a 2017 double-murder at the Cayce Homes in East Nashville.
"These are people that will clearly continue to do things like this if they're released back into public, " Shockley said.
Shockley told me on phone that the arrests came after her family received a tip last summer that they passed to investigators.
"The tip came to my husband and I, and we provided it to [investigators] and they took it from there," Shockley said. She did not go into details of the tip out of a fear of jeopardizing the case.
