LUMBERTON — An anonymous tip led to the capture of a teenager sought in the murder of a man found dead in a car more than a month ago, Sheriff Kenneth Sealey said.
Zyquis Rahheim Lewis-McNair, 19, of 153 Shelia Road in St. Pauls, was arrested Friday on Oakland Drive in Fayetteville at 1 p.m. by the Eastern District of North Carolina United States Marshal’s Service, Sealey said. He was charged with the first-degree murder of Jessie Ray Locklear, 26, of Liberty Park Road.
Lewis-McNair is being held in the Robeson County Detention Center without bond, Sealey said. He also is charged with possession of a firearm by a felon and discharging a weapon into an occupied vehicle resulting in the death of Locklear.
Lewis-McNair also was charged Friday with failure to make court appearances “while avoiding apprehension after Locklear’s death,” Sealey said. Lewis-McNair’s bond for‘failure to appear was set at $135,000.
No court date has been scheduled as of Friday evening.
Locklear was found July 23 unresponsive in a vehicle on Rennert Road in Shannon just after midnight.
The Sheriff’s Office identified Lewis-McNair as a suspect immediately.
“We’ve been looking for him since the death of Mr. Locklear. He was a suspect from the beginning,” he said. “It was only a matter of time. We knew who we were looking for.
“It’s been hard on the Locklear family. We hope it brings some kind of closure.”
The Cumberland Sheriff’s Office assisted with Lewis-McNair’s capture, Sealey said.
Warrants obtained by The Robesonian showed Lewis-McNair’s criminal record dates back nearly three years. Several charges from 2017 and 2018 still are pending. The charges included a felony assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury.
Lewis-McNair was convicted on April 29 of intimidating a witness and convicted of assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, according to court records. Lewis-McNair used a Glock .40 handgun on May 22, 2017, to assault Brian McMillan, according to the records.
In 2015 Lewis-McNair was charged and convicted of assaulting Anaitonio Brown by punching him in the nose.
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