Alabama prison inmate allegedly planned two contract killings in Birmingham from prison

A state prison inmate awaiting trial for the alleged contract killing of his on-and-off girlfriend in a Birmingham park is now accused of a second contract killing in the city.

Demarcus Chandler, 26, is charged with conspiracy to commit murder, discharging a firearm into a building and discharging a firearm into a vehicle.

The same crimes are also being charged against 20-year-old Justin Jamond Hendrix, who was recently charged with the murder of Asia Poole, who was caught livestreaming the killing of the 20-year-old Birmingham man last month.

Authorities claim Chandler planned the “murders” – one in 2020 and another last month – from prison.

The new charges against Chandler and Hendrix were made public this week.

Chandler, who has an extensive criminal history dating back to age 16, is serving his sentence at Holman Correctional Facility after being sent back to prison in 2019 for violating his parole on previous violent crimes.

Chandler is accused of inciting Hendrix to murder a man whose identity was not released in court records. The intended victim was not harmed.

The shooting occurred at 2 a.m. on August 20 at a home in east Birmingham. According to charging documents, shots were fired at a home and an SUV.

It happened early in the morning of that Tuesday, the same day Poole was killed later that night.

Chandler, however, is not charged with Poole's murder, and authorities say the murder and attempted murder are unrelated; the only similarity is that Hendrix is ​​charged in both cases.

Hendrix, one of five people charged in Poole's death, remains held without bail in the Jefferson County Jail.

In the 2020 case, authorities accused Chandler of hiring 26-year-old Solomon Minatee III for $8,000 to kill Raven Swain. Both are charged with capital crimes in connection with Swain's murder.

Swain was shot dead in Underwood Park in south Birmingham on July 28, 2020.

The shooting occurred that Tuesday evening shortly after 7 p.m.

Swain was found unconscious in her Hyundai Sonata, which had apparently rolled into the foliage after the shooting. She was slumped in the driver's seat, leaning over in the passenger seat. Her window was rolled down and she had been hit under her left arm, with bullets piercing her heart and lungs. Swain was pronounced dead at the scene.

After Swain's death, detectives found her cell phone in her vehicle.

At the request of police, the Alabama Department of Corrections searched Chandler's cell and also seized a smuggled cell phone.

After obtaining search warrants for the phones and examining them, a detective said, they found several phone calls in the minutes before and after Swain's death to a number they later identified as a cellphone used by Minatee. Technology also located the phone in the Underwood Park area at the time of Swain's murder.

Police previously testified that Chandler and Minatee exchanged a barrage of messages via text and Facebook before and after the shooting.

Three people told detectives that Chandler contacted them via Facebook or text message from the St. Clair Correctional Facility shortly after Swain's murder.

In one of the messages he wrote: “Your sister was shot. You have to look for her in the park near Southtown.”

He told another person from prison: “She got what she deserved.”

Chandler is scheduled to go on trial for Swain's death in 2025. His October trial date is set for the new charge of conspiracy to commit murder.