A fifty-year-old man, Marshall Ralph Payne, was arrested on Tuesday night in Murray County on murder charges in connection with the death of Donald “DJ” Fickey, Jr. Fickey was found dead in Walker County in 2016. Originally, Fickey’s death was ruled as a suicide, but in 2020 the Georgia Bureau of Investigation changed the cause of death to “undetermined”.
Fickey’s family hired a private investigator to look into the death, and a Walker County Grand Jury indicted Payne in April of this year. Sources close to the case report that Fickey and Payne may have been arguing about a woman at the time of Fickey’s death. Fickey and Payne were roommates at the time.
The Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney Clayton Fuller released a statement late Thursday afternoon saying, “The Murray County Sheriff’s office arrested 50-year old Marshall Ralph Payne after a Walker County grand jury indicted him for malice murder in the 2016 death of Donald Fickey, Jr. Payne has since been transported to Walker County, where he awaits an initial court appearance. Since this is a pending criminal case, I am not at liberty to make additional comments at this time.”
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