MACON, Ga. — A Clarkston man will spend years in prison after pleading guilty to firearm charges in connection with a 2016 murder.
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On Oct.1, a judge sentenced Sterling Breynard Bell, 35, of Clarkston, to 25 years in federal prison for firearms charges related to the 2016 murder of Kendra Roberts near Macon.
Bell’s sentencing comes after a federal investigation linked his firearm to the murder scene using ballistic testing, which exonerated Roberts’s boyfriend, who was initially charged with the crime.
“The diligence of a federal special agent solved a murder and prevented the conviction of an innocent man,” said U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg.“
On August 7, 2016, the Roberts’ body was found along a highway near Macon. Police said Roberts had been shot multiple times at close range, including twice to the face and once to the back of the head.
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Roberts’s boyfriend, Daniel Hall, then 22, was initially charged with her murder and spent two years in jail accused of the murder, authorities said.
However, the investigation took a turn when a Glock 9mm pistol seized from Bell was linked to the murder through ballistic testing, police said.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Georgia, Bibb County deputies investigating the murder were initially unaware that Bell had purchased the Glock weeks before the murder by lying about his drug use.
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents continued to investigate Bell and learned that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and refused to take his prescribed medication.
In 2018, an ATF special agent confirmed that Bell’s gun was the murder weapon.
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Bell was arrested on federal firearms charges in October 2018, and the charges against Roberts’s boyfriend were dismissed.
Bell later admitted to killing Roberts and was sentenced by a state judge to 20 years of imprisonment with the possibility of parole after serving one-third of the sentence.
On Oct. 1, May sentenced Bell to 25 years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, during which he will undergo mental health and substance abuse treatment.
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