Lubbock teenager indicted on murder charge in beating death
A 17-year-old girl whose fingerprints were allegedly found last month in a vehicle where police found a 50-year-old man's body, was indicted Tuesday in connection with the beating death of the man.
Bailey Forrest is charged with murder in the Sept. 27 death of Robert Stewart, whose body was found in the back seat of a Toyota RAV4 abandoned in an alley in the 2600 block of 46th Street.
Forrest is one of three people Lubbock Metropolitan Special Crimes Unit investigators arrested in connection with Stewart's death.
A 16-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl also face a murder charge in the case. At present, the two are being charged as juveniles. In Texas, 17-year-olds are charged as adults.
Investigators believe the three planned to rob Stewart after one of them arranged online to meet him for a sexual encounter, police officials said.
The case began when Lubbock police officers responded to the scene initially to help the city's solid waste department with a vehicle blocking an alley. Responding officers found Stewart in the back seat of his vehicle and EMS crews pronounced him dead at the scene.
Stewart, who lived about six blocks north of where his vehicle was found, suffered what investigators believed to be blunt-force trauma to his head and torso, according to a redacted probable cause affidavit. Evidence at the scene indicated that Stewart was killed elsewhere and his body was cleaned to hide blood evidence, court documents state.
The next day a tipster told police that Stewart was killed in an apartment in the 2100 block of 51st Street.
Detectives learned that during the investigation into an unrelated aggravated robbery case, Forrest's parents said their daughter lived in the apartment, court documents state.
A second tipster called into the Crime Line number and said Forrest and two other people beat a man to death with a pole, wrapped his body in carpet and dumped the car and body in an alley.
Investigators searched the apartment and found large areas of blood and evidence of a cleanup. They also found a site where evidence appeared to have been burned. However, a partially burned wooden club was recovered from the burn site, court documents state.
Forrest and the 16-year-old girl reportedly told investigators that day that they were present when Stewart was killed, saying the 16-year-old boy, Tobias Salazar, beat Stewart to death.
However, the investigator found that Forrest and the girl's statements contained inconsistencies about their involvement in Stewart's death and obtained a warrant for their cell phones.
The next day, a forensic scientist linked a fingerprint in Stewart's vehicle to Forrest.
Lubbock police arrested Forrest on Sept. 30 in the 4900 block of 4th street.
An hour later, a 16-year-old girl surrendered to police and was taken to the Lubbock County Juvenile Justice Center.
The 16-year-old boy was arrested Oct. 3 about two hours after issuing a news release identifying him as one of three teenagers suspected in Stewart's homicide case. He was also taken to the juvenile justice center.
Forrest was booked into the Lubbock County Detention Center on a charge of murder and aggravated robbery where she remains. Her bond is set at $350,000 for murder and $100,000 for the robbery charge.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lubbock teenager indicted on murder charge in beating death
