By WSFA 12 News Staff
Published: Dec. 13, 2023 at 11:05 AM CST|Updated: 10 hours ago
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) – Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey called a Wednesday afternoon news conference to announce breaks in three Montgomery cold case homicides, one dating back to the early 1980s.
Bailey said the developments are the result of work by the 3-year-old Montgomery Cold Case Unit, which is now credited with solving 15 homicide cases.
“These are cases that would have most likely never been solved if it had not been for the cold case unit and the work of the cold case investigators,” Bailey explained.
Bailey was joined by representatives from the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, Montgomery Police Department, Montgomery County Commission, U.S. Marshals Service and Central Alabama Crime Stoppers, to announce the signing of four warrants in three homicide cases.
JOHN BOGLE
The first investigation spanned back to May 21, 1980 when 51-year-old Montgomery businessman John Bogle was murdered when he arrived home to his Carmichael Road apartment around 3:30 p.m. Bailey said Bogle was the victim on a home invasion burglary and was beaten and stabbed to death. A number of pieces of property were stolen, including the victim’s vehicle, but the case grew cold as the decades passed.
“Once our cold case unit sprung into action, they discovered a suspect, and an arrest warrant for capital murder was recently issued for John Michael Irmer.”
Irmer, 68, currently lives in Boston, Bailey said, where he is being held while awaiting extradition back to Alabama to face a capital murder charge for Bogle’s death.
The Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, the FBI, the Boston Police Department, and the Suffolk County Jail (Mass.) assisted in this investigation.
JAMIE LIGHTSEY
The second investigation started on April 1, 2015. Someone shot and killed 34-year-old Jamie Lightsey in a road rage incident on Montgomery’s Argyle Road. Investigators determined a white Lincoln Town Car pulled alongside Lightsey’s vehicle and fired multiple shots, one of which hit the victim in the head.
Montgomery police followed leads but a suspect remained illusive for years. That changed on Wednesday with an arrest. Bailey said newly discovered witnesses and the re-examination of evidence collected at the scene led to the development of 34-year-old Montgomery resident Darrell Demond Moorer as a suspect.
Moorer was taken into custody by agents with the U.S. Marshals Service Wednesday morning.
STEVEN WHITE JR.
The newest of the cold cases left police and family searching for answers for more than five years. It was Nov. 24, 2018 when Steven White Jr., 28, of Montgomery was shot and killed in a robbery at hotel on Monticello Drive.
During its investigation, the cold case unit homed in on three suspects including Lonnie Helms III, 21, Kennedy Wilson, 24, and Darien Motley, also 24.
Bailey said Helms and Wilson have since been indicted for capital murder and second-degree assault. Wilson is currently in Bibb County, while Helms is being held in the Montgomery County Detention Facility pending trial. Motley, the DA said, was murdered in an unrelated case.
Family of both Lightsey and White spoke briefly at the news conference, thanking law enforcement.
“I am very proud of the work of the Cold Case Task Force,” Bailey said. “Due to the unit’s hard work, three murders have been solved and these victims’ families now will be able to see justice in a courtroom.”
Bailey noted that there are hundreds of other cold cases, and had a warning for those killers still walking the streets.
“There are cases out there that we are working on. There are people out there who have committed these crimes, and my message to you is, “You may have thought you’d gotten away with it, but we’re coming and we’re going to find you,”” Bailey stated. “And when we do, you will pay for these crimes that you have committed in our community.”
