Court documents detail Stacy Talbot’s final moments before he was shot and killed October 18
Lincoln Police have arrested three people in connection with the shooting of 42-year-old Stacy Talbot.
Investigators arrested 27-year-old James Richard Howard in Leon County Texas. He’s charged with being an accessory to the crime.
32-year-old Jesse James Wilson and 34-year-old Sherry Lynn Thomas were arrested in New Mexico. Wilson was arrested for theft, they believe he was the driver of the stolen vehicle used in the crime. Thomas was arrested on a warrant not related to this crime.
Neither police, nor court documents, detail exactly what role these three people played in Talbot’s homicide, but police do believe they were inside the car Talbot was pushed out of the evening of October 18.
Lincoln Police Chief Jeff Bliemiester said investigators aren’t looking for any other suspects, but didn’t rule out the possibility of more arrests.
Talbot was found lying in N. 14th street near Judson on October 18 around 8:30 p.m. He had been shot in the head and the chest. He was taken to the hospital where he died less than an hour later.
According to court documents, Talbot sent a text message minutes before he was reported to have fallen out of a moving car. It said “I need help now. These people won’t stop to let me out.”
He sent this text to a woman police found at Talbot’s house near 14th and Manatt Street just after he was killed. That’s less than a block away from where he was found.
According to the documents, Talbot was riding in a stolen silver Hyundai Sonata. Thomas, Wilson and Howard were inside.
Based on interviews, witnesses and surveillance video, Talbot had met up with Thomas and Wilson around 3:00 p.m. the day he was killed, but it wasn’t until later he got into the vehicle with them. Investigators think Wilson was driving the car, Thomas was in the passenger seat and Howard was in the backseat with Talbot.
The met up again at a home near 40th and Randolph a few hours later. Talbot got into the Hyundai with Wilson, Thomas and a third person who would later be identified as Howard.
They drove to a gas station near 40th and A, then to south Lincoln where they drove around in a parking lot near 40th and Pine Lake before heading back north.
The vehicle stopped at a gas station at 17th and K. Talbot didn’t get out of the car but Wilson and Thomas went inside and bought drinks from the store. That was at 8:00 p.m., about 25 minutes before Talbot would fall out of the car.
At 8:09, Talbot called an inmate at the Lancaster County Jail. According to investigators who listened to the call, there weren’t any sounds of a struggle in the background and the content of the conversation didn’t appear to be related to Talbot being inside the car.
They pulled out of the gas station at 17th and K at 8:11, that’s about when Talbot’s phone call ended.
Then, at 8:22 Talbot sent the text to his friend pleading for help, five minutes before he’d be found laying injured in north 14th street.
Lincoln Police Chief Jeff Bliemeister said Monday morning the Hyundai Sonata had to undergo further testing before they could confirm whether or not he was shot in the vehicle.
Bliemiester also said investigators recovered a handgun.
Court documents said Thomas had purchased a .38 caliber handgun from Express Pawn on October 17, the day before the homicide. Bliemeister didn’t confirm whether or not it was this gun they recovered.
Police haven’t said a motive for the crime.
“We are still confirming through interviews, here locally and in Texas and New Mexico in an attempt to try and determine what the relationships were and what events precipitated the homicide of Stacy Talbot,” Bliemiester said.
Talbot’s family speculates it was drug related.
Court documents said Talbot’s home near N. 14th and Manatt was known to the police to be heavily involved in the use and sale of narcotics, but they haven’t tied that to the crime at this time.
