DECATUR - Brandon D. Owens, 19, is in the Macon County Jail under a no bond arrest warrant on a preliminary charge of first-degree murder in the stabbing death Sunday of LeAdgrie "Lee Lee" Cunningham, 20.

Decatur police detectives have been working the case nearly to the exclusion of everything else since an 11-year-old girl, a relative of Cunningham, discovered her body about noon Sunday in the house at 1361 N. 18th St.

Deputy Police Chief Todd Walker said detectives obtained the arrest warrant Thursday with the assistance of the Macon County State's Attorney's Office, and Owens was booked into the jail late in the day.

Owens first was arrested about 12:30 p.m. Thursday by detective Sgt. Cody Moore, who went to 1801 E. Locust St. on information that Owens might be at that residence.

That arrest was on a preliminary charge of unlawful use of a weapon, when Moore found a Tec 9 semiautomatic pistol and magazine on a bedroom floor underneath a blanket. Several other people present in the house indicated Owens had been in the area of the residence where the pistol was located.

The resident of the Locust Street house was Freedom Cunningham, a cousin of LeAdgrie Cunningham, who lived across the street.

When Owens was questioned about the gun, he initially denied possessing the weapon but then admitted it was his, Moore said in a sworn statement filed Thursday in circuit court.

Owens stated that he had purchased the gun Wednesday for $200 in the area of 17th and Clay streets but refused to name the person who sold it to him, Moore said.

In a second sworn statement filed in court, officers named Owens as the suspect in a Dec. 22 home invasion in which he allegedly forced his way into a house in the 1400 block of East Locust Street, accosted a woman and her 9- and 12-year-old children and demanded money. The woman told him she had no money, but Owens allegedly punched her in the mouth twice before leaving the house.

Formal charges in those two cases are pending. Owens appeared Thursday before Associate Judge James Coryell, who set his bond at $75,000 in those cases.

In the Cunningham murder, Walker and Macon County Coroner Michael E. Day have declined to reveal any specifics about the crime scene. Police did describe the scene Sunday as "gruesome."

Day said the autopsy done on Cunningham determined that she died of multiple stab wounds to the torso, accompanied by massive bleeding and extensive injury to internal organs. He said the pathologist who conducted the autopsy indicated any one of the many wounds Cunningham suffered to internal organs could have proven fatal.

Walker would not comment Friday on information or evidence that led police to arrest Owens. He said further information needed to be obtained and examination of additional forensic evidence was ongoing.

Asked Friday if Cunningham's body had been mutilated in some manner, Walker said, "I don't want to get into specifics. That will be an important aspect at trial. It was one of the most brutal stabbing deaths that I've seen in my 23 years with this department."

Walker praised the efforts of the department's Criminal Investigations Division detectives that resulted in Owens' arrest.

"My detectives were aggressively working the Aug. 24 murder of Dawn Marques when we were notified of Cunningham's death," Walker said. "Our personnel have been stretched to the limits actively working two murders simultaneously. Now that we have some positive momentum in regards to the brutal stabbing death of Lee Lee Cunningham, we can shift some of our resources back and even focus more on attempting to solve the Marques murder."

Marques, 43, was found about 12:20 p.m. Aug. 24, slumped in her car, parked on Diane Road. She had been shot in the head. She was taken to Decatur Memorial Hospital and underwent surgery for her wound but died Aug. 25.

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