Accused Disabled Navy Vet's Killer Held Without Bond
The Albany Herald, Ga. | Jan 09, 2015 | by Jim West
ALBANY -- The suspect in a homicide on Tift Avenue Tuesday made her first court appearance Wednesday, where she was formally charged with murder and aggravated assault, police officials say.
Ashley Lacole Stroble, 31, is accused of killing Jimmie Fennell, 37, a disabled Navy veteran, at his residence, a boarding house at 311 W. Tift Ave. in Albany. Police responded to the address around 6:40 a.m. Tuesday on reports of man with lacerations to his throat and found that Fennell's throat had been cut.
Dougherty County coroner Michael Fowler said Wednesday that it was clear the victim died from a severing of a major artery in his neck. According to Fowler, the body will sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab for autopsy.
Stroble was arrested late Tuesday after interviews with investigators of the Albany Police Department, officials say, and continues to be held without bond in the Dougherty County jail. No potential motives or relationship between Fennell and his accused killer have been discussed by officials.
Col. John Ostrander, director of the Dougherty County jail, said Stroble has been something of a "regular" at the facility over the past several years, incarcerated six times since 2007.
"All of her past offenses in Dougherty County have been pretty minor," Ostrander said. "Until now she's never been accused of anything violent."
Dougherty County District Attorney Greg Edwards said on Wednesday that since he and Fennell were second cousins, Edwards would immediately recuse himself and his office from investigating or prosecuting the case against Stroble or subsequent defendants and would request a special prosecutor be named by state Attorney General Sam Olens.
