By Ray King
A 38-year-old Sheridan man who was arrested Friday during a homicide investigation will be held at the adult detention center with no bond while prosecutors prepare first-degree murder charges against him.
Matthew Lane was taken into custody at the Huddle House restaurant at White Hall a short time after deputies found the body of Ricky Brown, 28, of Sheridan near a dead-end on Elkins Road in a ditch on the west side. There were multiple injuries consistent with gunshot wounds to the upper body.
Jefferson County Coroner Chad Kelley pronounced Brown dead at the scene. The body was sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy.
According to a probable cause affidavit from Sheriff’s Investigator Charles White, a witness reported seeing a red or maroon Chevrolet SUV with a loud exhaust being driven by an unknown white male. Video from a nearby house showed a maroon GMC making the U-turn. During the turn, the passenger’s side door came open and no occupant can be seen in the passenger front seat.
White reported that the vehicle found at the Huddle House was registered to Brown and investigators located a green and camouflage shirt in a trash can outside the entrance to the restaurant that had a large amount of what appeared to be blood on the front of the shirt.
Lane was taken to the Sheriff’s Office and while enroute, told a deputy that “Ricky had a hole in his head” and they were going to his house to get his insurance card to go to the hospital.
A witness at the Huddle House told investigators that when Lane got out of the maroon SUV, he threw something in the trash can next to the building and then went immediately to the restroom where he stayed for about 20 minutes before taking a seat at the restaurant.
White reported that investigators located “many drops of what appeared to be blood” on the outside of the driver’s door and on the passenger B pillar. They also located what appeared to be blood on the front and back of Lane’s pants and two drops of a substance believed to be blood on Lane’s shoes.
Lane was not interviewed after he asked for an attorney.
