In this Jan. 24 file photo , a Jamestown Police vehicle is pictured outside the Park View Apartments , 401 W. Fourth St.
A Buffalo man has been identified and formally indicted in a Jamestown ‘execution-style’ homicide.
District Attorney Jason Schmidt announced Wednesday that 33-year-old Darius Kadenhead has been indicted by a grand jury and arraigned in Chautauqua County Court on a charge of second-degree murder arising from the shooting death of Marlon Clay which occurred on Jan. 22 at the Parkview Apartments in Jamestown.
Bail was set by Hon. David W. Foley at $2.5 million cash, $5 million property bond, or $10 million secured by the posting of 10%.
Two days after the shooting, Jamestown Police had announced that they had identified a suspect in Clay’s death, however the suspect’s name was not released, only saying that he was a Buffalo resident.
The next day the suspect was taken into custody and held in Erie County.
On Wednesday, Schmidt went into detail on Kadenhead’s arrest. “Mr. Clay sustained a single gunshot wound to the back of the head. His body was later discovered by a tenant in the apartment complex who alerted police. What followed was an immediate, intensive investigation by members of Jamestown Police Department, the Chautauqua County Forensics Investigation Team and District Attorney’s Office, leading to the identification and apprehension of Mr. Kadenhead in Buffalo, New York three days later, on Jan. 25. Mr. Kadenhead’s apprehension was led by our own Jamestown detectives who, themselves, traveled into the city of Buffalo to make contact with Mr. Kadenhead in coordination with the Buffalo Police Department and the FBI,” he said.
Schmidt added that, “the manner of his death suggests that Mr. Clay was executed. At the time Mr. Kadenhead is alleged to have committed this brutal, irreversible act, he had been on parole for only four months after having been released from state prison for a prior manslaughter conviction. When Jamestown detectives approached Mr. Kadenhead, he was found to be in possession of a loaded firearm and was then taken into custody on a parole violation and new weapon charge which is currently prosecuted by the Erie County District Attorney’s Office in consultation with me and my office,” he said.
After the indictment, Schmidt said he was legally permitted to share the suspect’s name. “Taking Mr. Kadenhead off the street on those charges satisfied our public safety concerns, which are always our number one priority when investigating violent crimes, and gave us the time needed to continue our efforts to develop evidence which we eventually presented to a grand jury. The resulting secret indictment was then unsealed (Tuesday) at the time of Mr. Kadenhead’s arraignment, allowing us to now apprise the community of these developments,” he said.
See the full story in Thursday’s edition.