The second person wanted in a Saturday morning murder and shooting served nearly two years for a 2005 murder which was reduced to manslaughter, law enforcement and state Department of Correction records confirm.

The man convicted of accessory in the 2005 case is related to the person who was arrested in Chapel Hill for Saturday’s murder, Major Bruce Temple of the Halifax County Sheriff’s Office said.

Watson

Temple said Brandon Watson’s violent criminal past is one of the reasons they are concentrating on getting him in custody. He is believed to frequent Roanoke Rapids, Littleton and Warren County.

In 2005, Watson, of Kincaid Drive, Roanoke Rapids was charged in the murder of 32-year-old Jeffrey Squires. Lance Jerome Kearney, who is related to Lester Kearney, who was charged in Saturday’s murder, was charged with accessory after the fact of murder. He was convicted in 2007 and is currently projected to be released from prison in February, according to department of correction records.

While sheriff’s office officials are declining to discuss details of the Saturday murder, in which Antonio Jerod Mills, 29, was shot repeatedly and killed, the 2005 murder was believed to be drug related, Sheriff Jeff Frazier said at the time.

The murder occurred when an argument about drugs escalated and turned deadly in the Littleton housing projects.

Squires went to the projects apparently to buy drugs and confront Watson and Lance Kearney about shooting into his mother’s house on Highway 4 a month before the murder.

The discussion escalated to an argument and Squires ordered his dog to attack the men. The dog was shot and Squires became more enraged before he was shot once in the chest with a small caliber handgun.

Meanwhile, the sheriff’s office continues to investigate the Saturday murder and double shooting, which occurred on Ward Drive off Rhea Smith Road.

Lester Kearney was arrested in Chapel Hill and is charged with murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, shooting into an occupied dwelling and possession of a firearm by a felon.

Temple said in a press release Watson is considered armed and dangerous.

Lester Kearney was arrested without incident at a dwelling in Chapel Hill with assistance of the city’s police department and the State Bureau of Investigation.

Kearney was jailed in Halifax without the opportunity for bond.

The sheriff’s office received a call of shots fired shortly after midnight Saturday morning and learned Mills was murdered. Two other people in the Ward Drive mobile home were shot.

As deputies responded an additional 911 call came through that said witnesses were involved in a chase with the suspect vehicle, which was last seen around the Highway 48 and Highway 158 area of Roanoke Rapids.

Investigators learned two men entered the home of Mills and a struggle ensued. The struggle ended after one of the suspects repeatedly shot Mills. Temple Saturday declined to discuss what kind of weapon was used and declined to name the two suspects who were also shot.

Anyone with information is encouraged to call the sheriff’s office at 252-583-1991 or Crimestoppers at 252-583-4444.