Police say racial slur led to murder of Dothan businessman

DOTHAN, Ala. (WTVY) - A racial slur led to the murder of a Dothan businessman and the arrests of two young suspects, according to a violent crimes’ investigator.

Robert Blount reportedly used the slur during a phone conversation with his girlfriend and because her speaker was on, others overheard.

Among them was Mekhi Telfair, a Black man who police accuse of retaliating in the most violent of ways.

These startling details were made public for the first time on Friday when Dothan Police Investigator Morgan Owens testified during a hearing that tested the strength of this case.

Blount’s phone conversation occurred as his girlfriend, with whom he had argued that night, was among a group that gathered on September 3 to watch college football.

After hearing the slur, Telfair, who is 24, and Blount, a 48-year-old FedEx contractor who was white, exchanged angry text messages though the two were not acquainted, Owens said.

A few hours later Telfair allegedly asked his friend, Koston McWaters, who also attended the get-together, to drive him to Blount’s home and, about a block away, Telfair got out of the vehicle.

Owens said he entered the home, possibly through the back door, and killed Blount, who suffered multiple wounds from shotgun blasts.

His girlfriend who was intoxicated discovered his body when she was driven to Blount’s home by one of her friends in the early morning of September 4.

Within a couple of days of that gruesome discovery, Telfair and McWaters, also 24, had been charged with the most serious of crimes---Capital Murder.

Defense attorneys, though, accuse police of grasping at straws to make this case.

“You haven’t found the murder weapon, have you? Arthur Medley asked Owens.

“No”, she replied.

And she said that McWaters changed his story multiple times before settling on one version and admitting that he knew that Telfair planned to shoot Blount.

Medley and Manish Patel, who is McWaters’ attorney, believe the suspects should be given bonds.

Houston County District Judge Benjamin Lewis is considering that request, but Owens’s testimony convinced him the charges should remain intact and he sent this case forward to a grand jury.

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