Cameron Rayford shot Justin Rayshun on December 23, 2019. He previously pleaded guilty in the murders of two women found dead in a burned car on November 20, 2001.
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| Cameron Rayford (Jefferson County Jail) |
Man who pleaded guilty in killings of 2 women in 2001 is behind bars on new Bham murder charge
Updated Dec 31, 10:11 PM;Posted Dec 31, 6:10 PM
By Carol Robinson | crobinson@al.com
A man who previously pleaded guilty in the deaths of two women found dead in a burned car is now charged in another murder.
Birmingham police on Tuesday announced the arrest of 36-year-old Cameron Rayford. He is charged with murder in the Dec. 23 Roosevelt City shooting that killed Justin Rayshun Johnson and wounded another man. He was taken into custody by the department’s Crime Reduction Team.
Birmingham police and fire medics responded that Monday at 1:11 p.m. to the house at 5929 Martin Luther Avenue in Roosevelt City. Sgt. Johnny Williams said they arrived to find Johnson suffering from a gunshot wound.
Johnson was taken to UAB Hospital where he was pronounced dead upon arrival. A second victim was located near the scene with a gunshot wound to the hand and is expected to be OK.
Williams on Tuesday said the investigation showed the deadly shooting was the result of a verbal altercation.
Rayford was arrested in March 2012 and charged with capital murder in the slayings of Kimberly Roy, 29, of Hueytown, and Sandie Lyn Mitchell, 28, of Midfield. The two women were found in a burned vehicle on Nov. 20, 2001.
Birmingham police at the time of his initial arrest said people got tired of seeing a man they believed got away with killing two women walking the streets of Roosevelt City. Finally, they said, someone came forward in January of 2012, and helped investigators build a case against Rayford.
Investigators said a drug-deal-gone-bad led to the two deaths. Kimberly Roy struggled with drug addiction for more than 10 years, but her father said at the time of Rayford's arrest that she was a born-again Christian. Mitchell, her parents said, was survived by a daughter who was seven at the time of her mother's death.
In May 2012, Rayford was released from jail after posting $150,000 bond and fled the state. A year later he was arrested by sheriff’s deputies in Virginia for driving 100 miles per hour. Authorities learned that he was out on bond for capital murder and wasn’t supposed to leave the state of Alabama.
Rayford, who was 18 at the time of the 2001 killings, pleaded guilty in 2014 to a reduced charge of provocation manslaughter and drug trafficking. As part of a plea deal with prosecutors, he received a 20-year split sentence with four years of confinement. He was put on probation for the trafficking charge.
Because of time served, Rayford was expected to actually serve about 2 ½ more years behind bars upon his sentencing. It wasn’t immediately clear when Rayford was released from prison.
He had initially faced the death penalty. Prosecutors at the time said the case was settled because of witness issues.
Court records show Bessemer Cutoff Circuit Judge David Carpenter on Nov. 20, 2019 issued a warrant for Rayford’s arrest on a probation violation charge. The order did not say what Rayford had done to violate his probation and it was not clear if he had ever been arrested on that warrant before Monday.
Rayford was booked into the Jefferson County Jail on his new murder charge shortly before 10 p.m. Monday. He is being held without bond.
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Birmingham man faced possible death penalty in 'cold case' deaths of 2 women; to serve 4 years in plea deal