One person has been arrested and a second person is wanted in the month-old murder of a homeless man behind the Sleep Inn on Claussen Road in Augusta.
Demorea Wallace, 22, has been charged in the Jan. 8 murder of 62-year-old Barry Monoochee Lew. He was arrested on Friday on charges of murder and kidnapping.
A second suspect, identified as 40-year-old Richard Kareem Moore, also has warrants for murder and kidnapping. Moore was released early from prison in October after serving just five months on a 10-year sentence for dealing drugs in Augusta as well as three consecutive five-year sentences for obstruction, fleeing police and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.
According to authorities, the suspects were mad with the homeless man for trying to get inside their hotel room. They saw him on the afternoon of Jan. 8 and chased him as he ran away, dragging him to the back of the Sleep Inn hotel. That’s where they allegedly pistol-whipped him before Moore shot him in upper body.
Lew, a father of four, was found dead around 2:10 p.m. on Jan. 8, making him Richmond County’s first homicide of the year. He was described on gunmemorial.org as a “free spirit” and “fun-loving.”
The wanted suspect has a listed address in Silverstreet, S.C., which is located in Newberry County. But he has a long history of arrests in Augusta.
