A man convicted of stabbing another man to death has been recaptured in North Carolina after he failed to return from a work program at the Atlanta Transitional Center.
Melvin Barkley, 36, of Carrollton, was tracked down Wednesday afternoon by the U.S. Marshals Service in Franklin, North Carolina, about 125 miles from Atlanta in the Nantahala National Forest, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Corrections said.
Barkley had been housed in the transitional center on Ponce de Leon Avenue in Midtown Atlanta, where inmates are employed in jobs outside the state prison system, the spokeswoman said. He failed to return after work Friday, prompting the GDC’s fugitive unit to begin searching for him.
The spokeswoman did not say how Barkley made it to North Carolina or how investigators were able to locate him.
Barkley pleaded guilty last year to multiple counts related to the fatal stabbing of 23-year-old Tyler Waters, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported. Barkley’s 30-year sentence was part of a negotiated plea deal, according to Coweta Judicial Circuit District Attorney Herb Cranford.
Cranford said his office agreed to the deal due to uncertainty that a jury would convict Barkley.
“Resolving this case with 30 years in prison without the possibility of parole protects our community for decades from this defendant and holds him accountable for taking the life of Mr. Waters without justification,” Cranford said at the time.
Barkley’s conviction stemmed from a fight with Waters, according to Cranford. After an initial physical confrontation, Waters drove away and Barkley followed, eventually rear-ending Waters. When the two men got out of their cars, Barkley stabbed Waters in the throat. Barkley fled from the scene but was caught the next day, officials said.
He also served prison sentences for other violent crimes, including aggravated assault and making terroristic threats or acts.
Barkley is being held in the Macon County Jail in North Carolina awaiting extradition to Georgia, according to the GDC.
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