A woman arrested in connection with the July disappearance of a Gwinnett County man was granted bond Tuesday, angering the victim’s family, who wanted her to remain in jail.
Destiny Stephens, 21, was booked into the Fulton County Jail last month on charges of murder and concealing the death of another, online records show. She and two others, who remain at large, are suspected of participating in the killing of 21-year-old Leondre Flynt, police said.
According to court records, Stephens was granted a $150,000 bond under several conditions: that she notifies the court of any change of address; appears at her next court date; and has no contact/is within 200 feet of the victim’s family. She must also stay away from the incident location and remain under a 24-hour curfew, with the only time away being for court, medical, religious or attorney related-exceptions, the records added.
Flynt’s cousin, Shannon Wilson, said the judge’s decision stemmed from Stephens’ age, that she didn’t have any prior convictions, and that she didn’t seem like a threat to the community.
“To be honest, I think it’s some (expletive),” Wilson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “They shouldn’t have given her bond. I mean, there’s no reason for it.”
Investigators believe Flynt was shot and killed July 29 and his body was later disposed of. The body has yet to be found, and Stephens’ arrest warrant does not state if police know what happened to it.
According to the warrant, Flynt left his family’s home in Gwinnett around 10 a.m. that day. He spoke on the phone with his sister about 45 minutes later and mentioned going to pick up a radiator from an auto parts store and then going to meet a woman in Buckhead, Wilson told the AJC last month.
After not hearing from Flynt, who always told his family what he was doing, they reported him missing to Gwinnett police Aug. 1. Atlanta police then took over the case after crime scene evidence was found in a unit at the Marquis at Buckhead apartment complex off Peachtree Road, where authorities said Flynt had gone to meet the woman.
According to investigators, Flynt had been communicating with a woman — not Stephens — before going to the apartment. It is not clear if she was the same woman Flynt was planning to meet, but investigators later learned that she told a friend she had been “attacked inside her apartment and that someone shot and killed her assailant,” the warrant stated.
A report of shots fired was made around noon July 29, police said, and a resident notified the leasing office of a bullet hole inside their apartment. Another tenant across the hall admitted shots were fired in his unit but told management it was a misfire, according to authorities.
Just after 6 p.m., license plate readers spotted Flynt’s truck at a Lowe’s store in Edgewood. Surveillance footage showed Stephens and the other woman getting out of his truck and buying a hand saw and bolt cutters from the store, police said.
The truck was tracked to a CVS in Detroit, Michigan two days later. Wilson said police sent the family a photo Nov. 11 indicating the vehicle was found in the city and had been stripped. Police have not confirmed that detail.
“But still no body,” Wilson said Tuesday.
On Aug. 16, maintenance at the Peachtree Road apartment complex reported finding blood on the fourth floor’s railing and a trail of blood leading to the parking garage. A short time later, police executed a search warrant at the apartment where the previous gunfire occurred and found “items of evidentiary value.”
While police said it was unclear who the shooter was, the evidence suggested that Stephens and the two other suspects “all participated in the murder and concealment of Leondre Flynt’s (body),” according to the warrant.
Wilson said his cousin never liked drama and had a bright future.
“I love him, miss him, and hate this happened,” he told the AJC. “He didn’t deserve this.”
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