60 Year Old Marvin Potter Murdered Billy Payne Jr. and Billie Jean Hayworth After They Defriended His Daughter On FaceBook

9th February 2012

A father shot dead a young couple after allegedly becoming upset that they deleted his daughter on Facebook.

Marvin Potter, 60, has been charged with the first degree murders of Billy Payne Jr, 36, and his 23-year-old girlfriend Billie Jean Hayworth, police said today.

Miss Hayworth's eight-month-old baby was found unharmed in her arms at their Mountain City home in Tennessee.



Both victims had been shot in the head and Mr Payne had his throat cut, according to Timesnews.net.

The victims had complained to police that Jenelle Potter, 30, was harassing them after they deleted her as a friend on the social networking site, according to Sheriff Mike Reece.
The sheriff said: 'It's a senseless thing.'

Miss Hayworth and Mr Payne had been living with his father, Billy Payne Sr who was the last person to see them alive.
He told detectives he saw Miss Hayworth get up to feed the baby before he left for work at 5.30 am on January 31.

The couple's bodies were discovered five hours later when a former neighbour stopped by to pick up mail the family had collected for him.

Mr Payne was found in his bedroom and Miss Hayworth was found in the baby's room.
Marvin Potter's friend, Jamie Curd, 38, has also been charged in connection with the murders. Curd, 38, is believed to have romantic feelings for Miss Potter, according to the sheriff.

PotterCurd
This article doesn't go into what Curd's role was in the murders.

Police said there have been other cases where Miss Potter believed that she had been slighted by someone.

Potter and Curd were arraigned today. Potter asked for time to hire an attorney while Curd was assigned a public defender.
Assistant District Attorney General Matthew Roark said Curd's initial bond was raised to $1.5 million.
The DA agreed to wait until next week for Potter's bond hearing when he is expected to have an attorney. Potter remains in jail on his initial $200,000 bond.

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March 1st , 2013



Public Defender Jeff Kelly argued Thursday in Johnson County Criminal Court that evidence collected during a search of Jamie Lynn Curd’s vehicle was illegally obtained and should not be allowed at his upcoming trial in the slaying of a Doe Valley couple last year.

Kelly asked Special Judge Jon Blackwood to suppress evidence found in the vehicle, claiming Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents and Johnson County Sheriff’s Department deputies did not have probable cause for a search, nor did they have a legal reason to impound the car as it sat in the sheriff’s department parking lot after Curd’s arrest.

“Basically everything they’ve done in this case has been tacked on at the end,” Kelly said. “There’s no doubt about that; it’s all been done backwards.”

According to testimony from TBI Agent Scott Lott, who took the stand for most of the hour-long hearing, Curd turned himself in to Johnson County authorities on Feb. 6, 2012, a week after Billy Payne Jr. and Billie Jean Hayworth were found shot to death inside their home on Jane Davis Lane.

Lott said Curd told authorities that he and Marvin “Buddy” Potter Jr., also accused in the slayings, drove to the couple’s home on the night of Jan. 31, 2012, in Potter’s Ford F-350 pickup truck.

The agent testified that Curd told police Potter shot the two victims, and then the two traveled back to Potter’s home, from where Curd drove to his home in his own vehicle.

Lott said that during questioning, Curd also agreed to place a recorded telephone call to Potter, during which, Lott testified, Potter said he disposed of the gun, knife and gloves used during the crime.

Lott testified that Curd was arrested after his interview with police and escorted to his car, which was parked outside the sheriff’s department headquarters.

Upon discovering that the vehicle was extremely cluttered and “looked like he had been living out of the car,” Lott said he decided that time constraints did not allow him to search the vehicle for a cellphone that Curd claimed held messages that further implicated Potter.

Two days later, on Feb. 8, Lott said the JCSD began an inventory of the items in the vehicle before impounding it, claiming it had been abandoned.

The following day, investigators were granted a warrant to seize items found during the inventory by Criminal Court Judge Robert Cupp, and on Feb. 10, the vehicle was impounded.

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