Inset left: Jonah Jeter (Metropolitan Detention Center) Inset right: Robert Debeary (Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office). Background: The residential area near where Jeter allegedly killed and buried Debeary in Albuquerque, N.M. (Google Maps).
A New Mexico landlord is behind bars for shooting and killing his disabled tenant and burying him under the porch of the house where he lived, law enforcement in the Land of Enchantment says.
Jonah Jeter, 33, stands accused of one count of murder in the first degree over the death of 52-year-old Robert Debeary, according to the Albuquerque Police Department.
The investigation began with a missing person report after the victim's family had not heard from him since Aug. 11, police said.
As months went by, the investigation progressed. Law enforcement obtained surveillance footage of the victim leaving his residence on Alcazar Street Northeast on Aug. 12, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Albuquerque-based Fox affiliate KRQE.
An initial search of the room where Debeary lived turned up some of his belongings, but no bed, according to law enforcement. During an interview with Jeter, the landlord said his tenant did not have a bed, according to court documents. But investigators were not convinced.
Detectives believed Jeter offered inconsistent accounts of whether he had moved anything in Debeary's room or if he had tried to evict him, according to the charging document. Meanwhile, the victim's family told police there were ongoing issues between landlord and tenant.
The Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office posted on Facebook about the vanished man in early September, asking the public for help.
The victim's family confronted the defendant about a reddish-brown stain in the house where Debeary lived, according to a complaint obtained by local independent news website ABQ RAW.
Other tenants who lived in the house also made note of a depression in the lawn in the backyard, police said.
The investigation zeroed in on Jeter after an anonymous tip, police said. In late October, the defendant was arrested for possessing stolen guns in his vehicle, according to law enforcement.
Two days after that arrest, the calculus shifted substantially.
On Oct. 27, investigators returned to the Alcazar Street apartment with a search warrant.
This time, detectives noticed loose dirt outside, according to court documents. The ensuing dig uncovered a grisly discovery.
Directing their attention to a patch of new turf underneath the porch, investigators found a mattress and a bed frame buried roughly 2 feet underground, according to court documents obtained by local ABC and CBS affiliate KOAT. Investigators also found Debeary's body on the bed, wrapped in a blanket.
The victim — a four-time stroke survivor who suffered brain damage, was paralyzed on one side of his body and walked with a cane — had been shot in the head, according to the complaint.
The defendant, for his part, said he recently landscaped the backyard but denied burying the bed or the body, police said.
Jeter was subsequently arrested and is currently detained in the Metropolitan Detention Center with no bond.
The defendant is also charged with one count of aggravated burglary, two counts of possession of a firearm by a felon and three counts of tampering with evidence, Bernalillo County jail records show.