Toby Lee Lowry, 22, was returned from Texas and booked into the Putnam County Jail at noon on Saturday on a charge of first-degree murder in the slaying of 66-year-old James Stewart of Melrose.
Lowry's 15-year-old girlfriend and the subject of a nationwide Amber Alert when she was spotted in the dead man's pickup truck -- Morgan Leppert -- is expected to be brought back to Putnam County by juvenile justice authorities soon and will also face a murder charge, according warrants signed on Tuesday.
Lowry will have his first appearance Sunday, but was expected to be ordered held without bond.
Lowry and Leppert were picked up in El Paso, Texas, one week ago when a motorist recognized the couple seen panhandling near Interstate 10 from a national news report and called 911.
Putnam County Sheriff Dean Kelly said Stewart was beaten with two metal rods, stabbed several times and suffocated with a plastic bag over his head.
Investigators said there was no prior relationship between the couple and Stewart, who was disabled and hard of hearing.
"They were looking, basically, something to get into, for a way to get out of the county," Kelly said earlier in the week when announcing that the pair would be charged with murder. "They stayed in a wooded area behind the victim's home. They just cased the area looking for an easy mark."
Investigators said Leppert knocked on Stewart's door, said her car had broken down and asked to use the phone. That call was made to her own cell phone -- the connection between her disappearance and the homicide that led Putnam County to issue the Amber Alert.
"Of course, there are always suspicions, but until we had more facts, we had to error on the side of caution and treat her as an endangered missing child," Kelly said.
Kelly praised the national news media for getting out the Amber Alert information, which resulted in the capture of two people now charged with murder.
Leppert, Lowry and a third person who officers believe was a hitchhiker from Florida were panhandling just off Interstate 10 when a man who saw the Amber Alert coverage that morning on the Fox News Channel.
The stolen 2003 Toyota Tacoma pickup they allegedly stole after killing Stewart was found nearby.
Putnam County investigators had searched for the San Mateo teenager since her mother reported her missing on April 22, but the case was elevated to an Amber Alert when deputies made the connection to the homicide.
Lowry has a lengthy criminal history, with arrests in both Putnam and Clay counties. He was released last summer after serving a 20-month sentence for burglary and criminal mischief.
Deputies received three reports of the stolen vehicle headed west on I-10, the most recent was early Thursday morning near Houston.
By noon Sunday, three Putnam County investigators were in Texas interviewing Lowry, Leppert and the hitchhiker, Robert Brucker, 43. Investigators said the couple picked up Brucker in Valdosta and had no connection to the slayings.
Kelly said that, ironically, the fact that Leppert was 15 is probably the reason she and Lowry were caught quickly. If she had been 18 -- too old to qualify for the Amber Alert that generated the national news coverage -- they have not idea if or when authorities would have caught up with Leppert and Lowry.
In addition to murder, Lowry is also charged with car theft, interference with custody of a child and panhandling.
Copyright 2008 by News4Jax.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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