Search warrants turn up rounds in suspect’s car

Investigators found bullet shells while searching the car of a suspect in the cover-up of the shooting death of Joshua Bailey.

The three 9-millimeter rounds were the size of the bullets police think were used to kill Bailey.

According to a search warrant released Tuesday, police found the shells in a 2005 Toyota Sequoia belonging to Mishele Slade Minton, who has been charged with accessory to murder in Bailey’s case.

Police also found a round for a .38 caliber weapon in the Toyota.

Brian Gregory Minton, Mishele Minton’s son who has been charged with murder in the case, had a .38 caliber weapon at the time of the crime, warrants state.

Police also seized two Lowe’s Home Improvement store receipts from the Toyota, according to Tuesday’s warrant.

Search warrants say that Mishele Minton drove three of the defendants in the Toyota to a Lowe’s Home Improvement store to buy two gallons of muriatic acid in an attempt to destroy evidence.

Police also searched Brian Minton’s 1995 Honda Civic and found a “bag of white powder substance,” according to another warrant released Tuesday.

As police attempt to piece together what happened to Bailey, the search warrants are the latest of many that police have served based on affidavits using confidential sources, surveillance tape and interviews.

Indictments

On Tuesday, the court also released grand jury indictments for the nine people in connection with Bailey’s death.

Matt Johnson, Brian Minton, Jack Johnson II, Brandon Hamilton Greene, Jacob Alexander Maxwell and Ryan Ladar Davis Lee all were indicted for first-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping.

The grand jury also handed down indictments for Gregory Lee Minton, Mishele Minton and Chris Manley for accessory after the fact to a felony.

Indictments from a grand jury, which is a sealed body, allow prosecutors to move forward in prosecuting the defendants.

On July 29, Bailey was beaten up at the Mintons’ house on Smith Level Road before being escorted to Mishele Minton’s car, according to warrants.

Warrants state that he was taken to a wooded location off of Twisted Oak Drive in Chapel Hill, where some of the defendants dug a grave and someone shot him in the head.

Brian Minton and two other defendants allegedly moved his body using a U-Haul truck that came from a rental service owned by Brian Minton’s father, Gregory Minton.

Police found his body Sept. 12 near Jordan Lake in Chatham County.



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