Three arrested in Attalla murder for hire plot

Gregory Crews

Attalla Police are reporting a failed murder-for-hire plot, involving one man wrongly claiming to be an arresting official.

Police Chief Dennis Walker confirms the three suspects, Gregory Crews, Joshua Otey and Sherese Kemp--all from the Pulaski, Tennessee area--are charged with burglary and attempted murder in the first degree.

Attalla Chief Investigator Doug Jordan says the call originally came in as a possible church burglary on Cleveland Avenue, around 8:35 Saturday night.

Jordan says it turned out to be an assault. He says Crews claimed to be either in law enforcement or a bail bondsman, in possession of a vest and a can of pepper spray, and claimed the man who lived on Cleveland Avenue needed to come with him.

Sherese Kemp

After a discussion at the door, Jordan says a struggle ensued, and at one point, Crews and Otey were beating the man with a hammer and stabbing him with a screwdriver.

It was a surprise appearance by the victim's girlfriend that ended it.

"The victim's girlfriend came home in just enough time, and sort of broke up the fight, scared them off," Jordan said. "They were afraid they were going to get apprehended."

But while fleeing the area, Jordan says the three--including Kemp, who was driving--were pulled over at a traffic stop by Attalla Police Officer Colton Harden.

Jordan says Harden found blood on the men, and the vest and pepper spray used in the law enforcement ruse.

Jordan says Otey and Kemp have given statements indicating Crews hired them to help him kill the victim, who he had known for some time and at one point lived with. They say Crews was claiming the man owed him money.

Joshua Otey

However, Chief Walker says Crews, for his part, is sticking with his "bail bondsman" story.

Chief Walker says the victim has a crushed jaw that has been wired back together, and will undergo plastic surgery for the jaw and multiple facial lacerations.

All three are in the Etowah County Jail on $100,000 bond each.