>> SUPERIOR COURT
A Baldwin County grand jury handed down a true bill of indictment on July 10 on a man accused of killing a Putnam County resident.
Tabish Nigel Goddard, 30, of Highland Avenue, Milledgeville, was indicted on charges including malice murder, two counts of felony murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm by a first offender probationer, according to Baldwin County Superior Court records.
Goddard was indicted on the shooting death of Joshua Corey Jones, 43, of Thomas Drive, which is on the shores of Lake Sinclair in southern Putnam County.
An indictment is a written decision of the 23 jurors that they heard sufficient evidence from the prosecutor for the case to move on to Superior Court for arraignment and/or trial.
Milledgeville Police Department reportedly first learned of the murder when Jones’ body was discovered early in the morning June 17, in Graham Homes, a Housing Authority neighborhood on West Martin Luther King Drive in Milledgeville. The victim was lying on the ground beside his Land Rover that was parked between two houses. No one was reportedly living in the houses because they were being remodeled at the time.
Milledgeville police investigators reportedly seized the Land Rover to process it for evidence.
It has since been returned to the family members of the victim. Authorities have not said why Jones was in the neighborhood or what the motive was in the shooting. Two days later, Goddard was arrested at his home.
“This was just old-fashioned, boots-on-the-ground, good police work,” MPD Maj. Linc Boyer said of the arrest.