Alexandria Police Chief Tarrick McGuire said that the suspect charged with the murder of Charles Talley in the city’s West End on July 15 was tracked down with automatic license plate reader (ALPR) technology, and he has since been extradited from North Carolina.
The victim, Charles Talley, was shot and killed on the evening of Wednesday, July 15, in the parking lot of the ParcView Apartments in the 5300 block of Holmes Run Parkway. Corey Delantau Stubblefield has been held without bond since his arrest in North Carolina on Aug. 27, and was charged with first-degree murder and use of a firearm in commission of murder.
“Yesterday (Oct. 1), our officers traveled to North Carolina, took the suspect into custody, and brought him back to Alexandria, where he is now in our jail,” McGuire said.
Stubblefield, 38, was indicted by a multi-jurisdictional grand jury on Sept. 30.
While McGuire didn’t reveal a motive behind the shooting, he said that Stubblefield and Talley knew each other and that an argument preceded the shooting. Police found Talley in the parking lot, and he died from his injuries at Inova Alexandria Hospital.
Stubblefield was arrested while walking from a residence to U.S. Highway 421 in Sampson County, N.C. He faces up to life in prison for the murder charge and up to three years in prison for the use of a firearm in commission of murder charge.
McGuire thanked his officers for their persistence and said that the department used “every law enforcement tool available to the department,” including ALPRs, privately owned camera footage, and ballistic and forensic evidence allegedly linking the suspect to the firearm that was used in the incident and found nearby by police.
“Police technology is very critical to helping us establish investigative leads,” McGuire said. “I will tell you that immediately after this event occurred, going back through utilizing that technology, ALPR camera, the vehicle was located on that camera approximately four minutes after this violent crime occurred. So, it was very critical in helping us establish an investigative lead.”
Under mounting privacy fears, Alexandria’s use of ALPRs has come under fire from residents and City Council. The Alexandria Police Department recently released a map of the 61 Flock cameras stationed throughout the city.
McGuire previously told ALXnow that the homicide likely had a “drug nexus” associated with it, although Stubblefield had not been charged with drug-related offenses.
“We had some issues surrounding narcotics subsequent the activity that our officers were involved in,” McGuire said. “That area specifically during that time was an area where we saw peaks in violence, and some of those incidents that we were making arrests off of and facing involved narcotics.”
McGuire also said that a resident walking his dog told police that a silver Cadillac sedan fled the scene immediately after the shooting.
“Investigators learned from a witness who was walking their dog through the community that a silver Cadillac sedan left at a high rate of speed immediately after the shooting, which linked the suspect again to the case, and the suspect later traveled to North Carolina following the shooting,” McGuire said.
The incident was the third confirmed homicide in Alexandria this year, according to APD crime data.
