By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
A 19-year-old Mobile man, charged in the July 2023 shooting death of an Atmore man on a city street, was released from jail recently after his bond was reduced by 85 percent.
According to information provided upon request by Circuit Clerk John R. Fountain, Antonio LeMarcus Pettaway II was freed May 30 after his bond was lowered from $500,000 to $75,000.
Pettaway was out of jail on bond for carrying a firearm onto the campus of Williamson High School in Mobile in September 2022 when he allegedly fired the shot that killed 22-year-old Jatyrain Aquamini “Tank” Tolbert.
Police said the shooting, which took place July 25 on Brooks Lane, was the result of an argument over a faulty “Glock switch” Tolbert had purchased from the Mobile man. Such a device allows conversion of a semi-automatic handgun to fully automatic.
Pettaway reportedly fired one shot from a 9mm pistol into the side of Tolbert’s car, in which the victim was sitting, on Ann Street. The bullet struck Tolbert in the rib cage, and though gravely wounded, he drove about a block before crashing his vehicle into a Frontier Communications van near the intersection of Brooks Lane and King Street, triggering reports of a wreck with injuries.
Police and emergency medical personnel arrived to find that Tolbert, the vehicle’s driver and its only occupant, had been shot. He was rushed to Atmore Community Hospital, but ACH emergency staff were unable to save him.
According to published reports, District Attorney Steve Billy told District Court Judge Eric Coale shortly after Pettaway surrendered to ECSO personnel on August 3, 2023 that the evidence against the accused shooter should justify a charge of capital murder.
The DA said witnesses against Pettaway are “scared to death,” and added that, if Pettaway makes bond, “we may not have any witnesses alive to come to court.”
The bond reduction, which was approved by Circuit Judge Jeff White, came after Pettaway’s lawyer, Wade Hartley, filed a motion asking that the amount be lowered. According to conditions of the bond, Pettaway will remain under house arrest while awaiting trial.