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Gowans
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charged
in murder
By BOB HIGH
An 18-year-old Chadbourn male was arrested Monday afternoon on a charge of murder involving the pistol death of a Whiteville man last October.
Allen Ray “Rambo” Gowans of Dessie Road is charged with the slaying of Clayvon Ternail Collins, 23, of Stanley Circle in the community between Brunswick and Whiteville on Oct. 25.
This is the second arrest by the sheriff’s Detective Division within seven days to clear rural murder cases. Byron Leneau Hooks, 19, of Cerro Gordo, was arrested last week in the shotgun death of Mickey Ray Hayes, 54, of Cerro Gordo on Jan. 14.
Three Robeson County residents were indicted here Monday in the execution-style murder of Andre Franklin Parker, 32, on March 16 of last year in his Campground community home just north of Whiteville. See story Page 4-A of the printed edition.
Collins died from a shot that entered at the top of his left shoulder and tumbled through his body. The projectile was found just under the skin in Collins’ abdomen.
“We don’t know the reason that Collins was killed. Gowans was asked to make a statement several times and also invited to take a polygraph test, but he refused to talk to detectives,” Sheriff Chris Batten said.
‘Very dark night’
The 2:30 a.m. killing took place outside Eugene “Bay Bay” Bellamy’s home along the unpaved Stanley Circle, and it was a “very dark night,” Detective Sgt. David Nobles noted.
Collins was seated in the driver’s seat of his car, a second male was in the front passenger seat and a woman was in the rear passenger area when a man walked from the rear of the car to the driver’s door.
Nobles said it is not known if Collins opened his door and got out or if Gowans was the one who opened the door. The two people inside Collins’ car heard some muffled words and saw Collins and Gowans in an altercation close to Collins’ vehicle, and then heard a shot.
Witnesses said they saw Gowans run to his car, parked about 50 feet away beside Bellamy’s home, and hurriedly leave the scene.
Nobles and SBI Agent Mac Warner conducted the investigation and made the arrest.
Gowans is also charged with armed robbery in a May 11, 2005 case in Chadbourn where Leon Chestnut, 45, was robbed of $200 by a person using a pump shotgun. Gowans’ co-defendants were Terrance Lashuan Flowers, 18, and Jason Antwan Williams, 18, both of Chadbourn. Charges against Flowers and Williams have been dismissed.
Collins’ death was one of eight people murdered during the last five months of 2005. There were 13 homicides – including three people shot dead on Nov. 5 just south of Chadbourn – last year.
“We need some help in some of these cases. We’d like to hear from anyone who might know something about the triple homicide in Chadbourn, the killing of Craig LeSand Williams near Georgia Pacific Road in September, and the death of 14-year-old Lekidria Jenice Strickland last April,” Batten noted.
Ivery Dennis Inman, 40, his wife Regina Renee Dossie Inman, 33, and her brother Anthony “Goofy” Martin, 35, were killed in the Inman home along Dessie Road during a robbery on Nov. 5.
Information can be directed to the Detective Division at 642-6551. A reward is possible for substantial help in some of the cases, the sheriff added.