Columbus gangster, repeat armed robber fatally stabbed in Macon prison

Tim Chitwood
·4 min read
2

A man sentenced earlier this year in a major Columbus gang case involving multiple armed robberies has been stabbed to death in a Macon prison, authorities confirmed Tuesday.

Marquis Lamar Johnson, 26, was stabbed Monday at the Central State Prison, according to the state Department of Corrections. Bibb County Coroner Leon Jones said Johnson died at a Macon hospital at 4:37 p.m., the Macon Telegraph reported.

Joan Heath, public affairs director for the corrections department, wrote in an email to the Ledger-Enquirer that Johnson’s death was being investigated by the GDC’s Office of Professional Standards, as standard procedure.

She said no further details about the stabbing were available.

Johnson’s fatal stabbing was the second in two days, at the prison.

Hollis Bryant, 28, who was serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to murder in Toombs County, in 2019, died about 1:30 a.m. Sunday, the Telegraph reported.

Johnson was among more than 20 Columbus suspects charged in a 116-count indictment alleging he was involved in a street gang called 4MG, described as a “hybrid” association that through the Gangster Disciples was affiliated with Folk Nation, a gang alliance formed in the 1980s.

The man accused of leading this criminal enterprise was Reginald Jackson, whose aliases included “El Dorado Red,” “Landlord,” and “Da Mayor of the City.” He founded the gang in 2016 to sell drugs, authorities say, and like Johnson, he was linked to a series of 2017 crimes.

Pleading guilty

Most of those cases were resolved through negotiated pleas this past April, when the suspects were sentenced in a court session Judge Bobby Peters held at the Columbus Civic Center, to accommodate all the defendants and the deputies needed to guard them.

According to court records, Johnson pleaded guilty April 5 to 11 counts of armed robbery, nine counts of violating the Georgia Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act, two counts of aggravated assault and one count each of hijacking a motor vehicle, using a gun to commit a crime and attempting to commit a felony.

Peters sentenced him to 20 years in prison, and Johnson started serving that sentence in the state prison system on June 20, according to the corrections department.

Here are the 2017 offenses charged to Johnson in the gang indictment:

  • June 23, an attempted armed robbery at the Lucky Food & Lotto, 5425 Forrest Road.

  • June 23, an armed robbery of the Circle K, 1801 12th Ave.

  • June 23, an armed robbery of Little Caesar’s Pizza, 3379 Buena Vista Road.

  • June 26, an armed robbery of the Circle K, 1715 S. Lumpkin Road.

  • June 26, an armed robbery of the Dinglewood Party Shop, 1520 Wynnton Road.

  • June 29, an armed robbery of the Denny’s restaurant, 3239 Macon Road.

  • July 9, a car hijacking at the Big Cat station, 2936 N. Lumpkin Road, where police said Johnson and three others took a woman’s red 2006 Pontiac G6.

  • July 9, an armed robbery of the Circle K, 2102 Wynnton Road.

  • July 12, an armed robbery of the Village Pawn Shop, 937 Fort Benning Road.

Shots fired

Though no one was wounded, a barrage of gunfire erupted at the pawn shop robbery as the suspects fled, police said.

A pawn shop worker pulled a gun and started shooting at the robbers, who shot back. More than 50 bullets were fired, 30 of them by the suspects, police reported.

Johnson and his accomplices fled in a black Toyota Rav4 that investigators tracked to the 200 block of 23rd Avenue, before the suspects hid in the home of suspect Quantavious Marcel Pigler’s mother, leading to a police standoff.

The robbers were arrested when they tried to escape out the back door, police said.

Johnson was not charged in any of the murder cases connected to the gang, but the Pontiac G6 he helped hijack from a gas station June 6, 2017, was found burning the next day on Harbison Drive, with the body of 34-year-old Michael Fleming in the trunk.

Authorities said Jackson, the gang leader, killed Fleming at Cusseta Road Apartments, 2613 Cusseta Road, where the gangsters had established a stronghold, collecting rent from their associates and selling drugs.

Among his other charges, Jackson in April pleaded guilty to two counts of malice or deliberate murder, before Peters sentenced him to life in prison plus 45 years. His other offenses included racketeering, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, arson, concealing a death and home invasion, plus gang, gun and drug violations.