Sylvester T. Jones charged in death of Terrell E. McIntyre

A Newport man has been charged with one count of 2nd degree Intentional Homicide – Not Premeditated, after authorities say he admitted to involvement in the death of a man who was found deceased in a black Ford SUV at the Newport transit station.

Sylvester Tremaine Jones, 38, was arrested Tuesday, Feb. 7 by Washington County law enforcement in the death of 39-year-old Terrell McIntyre, reportedly Jones’ cousin.

If convicted of the charges, Jones faces a maximum of 40 years in prison for the crime.

Jones was arrested after Washington County sheriff’s deputies responded to a check welfare call at the Newport transit station for a man slumped over in the driver’s seat of a black SUV, with a pool of what appeared to be blood on the ground below the vehicle.

Upon arrival deputies located the man who turned out to be McIntyre slumped over with the front driver’s side door open and left leg hanging out of the vehicle.

In addition, multiple spent .22 caliber ammunition casings were recovered from inside the vehicle and outside on the ground.

Using both traffic citation records from last fall and witness details from earlier in the day, detectives tracked the suspected shooter to apartments in the 1700 block of First Avenue North, in Newport. Learning that Jones resided at the building and relying on similarities in a witness report of a black man with a beard described leaving the scene compared to Jones’ driver’s license, authorities then obtained surveillance video from the apartment complex adjacent to the transit center. On this video they found footage of a man entering McIntyre’s vehicle at 9:34 a.m and exiting 10 minutes later, with the 911 caller later checking on the deceased at 10:50 a.m.

Continuing to use surveillance footage, detectives then matched the person seen leaving the scene with an individual shown walking northbound on 1st Avenue before walking southbound on Maxwell Avenue and crossing 21st Street towards First Avenue seven minutes later.

A second video showed the same individual walking northbound on First Avenue before heading southbound on 1st Avenue nine minutes later.

Using this to obtain a search warrant, detectives then searched Jones’ residence, locating a .22 caliber handgun on the floor of Jones’ bedroom.

Also located in the search were several boxes of ammunition, along with a black jacket, black pants, and a black vest with a white emblem, items which matched the clothing worn by the suspect in the surveillance video.

Following advisement of his Miranda rights, Jones allegedly admitted to the shooting in a followup interview with detectives, saying that he had exchanged text messages with McIntyre and that he (McIntyre) was supposed to bring Jones to a Target store. Jones said that he shot McIntyre between eight to 10 times, per the interview with detectives.

An autopsy confirmed that McIntyre had died from multiple gunshot wounds, with Jones being taken into custody by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

Victim Terrell E. McIntyre