Another suspect arrested in April assault


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Another suspect arrested in April assault

By SUE WATSON
Staff Writer

A suspect on the run in the case of the kidnapping and aggravated assault of an H.W. Byers junior on April 11 in Marshall County has been taken into custody, according to sheriff Kenny Dickerson.

Xavier Cornelius Parks was picked up Tuesday, June 26, in Chicago, Ill., by special agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and members of the Chicago FBI Safe Streets Task Force, the sheriff said.

Parks, 31, a resident of Saulsbury, Tenn., is half brother to a second suspect, Alexander Carter, 24, already arrested and being held on bond in the Marshall County jail on the same charges. Parks has been sought by law enforcement since May 18 when a warrant for his arrest was issued by Marshall County authorities.

Three other suspects were also arrested and charged with kidnapping and aggravated assault, while charges against one of the suspects were dropped this week.

Ashley Hardeman, 19, sister of the victim, of 321 Hurdle Club Road, Holly Springs, and Gregory Jenkins, 30, of Hardeman County, Tenn., face kidnapping and aggravated assault charges and are being held on $1 million bond by Marshall County.

Preliminary hearings for Carter, Ashley Hardeman and Jenkins, scheduled for Monday of this week, were postponed by Judge Mae Garrison and continued until July 31 at 10 a.m. The hearing was rescheduled to give attorneys for the defendants time to prepare their cases.

Charges against a fifth suspect, Kevin Schrock, 29, of LaGrange, Tenn., were dropped during a preliminary hearing that was held as scheduled in the Hardeman case on Monday, July 2.

Working the overall investigation since the case broke April 11 have been the Southaven and Oxford offices of the FBI, the Hardeman County, Tenn., Sheriff’s Department, and the investigative team with the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department.

The victim, Charles Hardeman, 18, of 321 Hurdle Club Road, was thrown into a lake behind his residence with a weight tied to his leg after being struck across the forehead. He escaped from the lake, returned to his residence and drove his Toyota pickup about one-quarter mile from his home where he lost control, veered off the road and his vehicle struck a tree.

Medical personnel, reporting to the wreck, noticed Hardeman seemed to have water in his lungs and his clothes were wet.

Marshall County investigators linked Hardeman’s truck to the 321 Hurdle Club Road address through the license plate number. Later the same day, investigators were called to the scene when a fire was reported at the same address. Investigators, piecing together clues, connected the wreck and the fire to Hardeman’s condition.

The victim was airlifted to the Memphis Med, where he later regained consciousness and remained in the hospital for weeks until he was well enough to be released.

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