A man wanted in the shooting death of a delivery truck driver in the Philadelphia suburbs last year has been arrested in Georgia, federal and local authorities said.
Rodney Shelton II, 38, was found Friday in a woman's apartment in DeKalb County, Georgia, Delaware County officials and the U.S. Marshals Southeast Regional Task Force said.
"He initially tried to run out the back door, but we had officers back there, and then he decided to give up and come to the front door" task force inspector Frank Lempka told reporters.
The Elizabeth City, North Carolina, resident is charged with first-, second- and third-degree murder as well as robbery and firearms counts in the June 2015 death of 63-year-old Thomas Childs, of Aston.
Yeadon police found Childs' body next to his delivery truck in the loading dock of Ridgway Industries, the apparent victim of an early morning robbery. Authorities said his killer fled with about $20 and Childs' company-issued cell phone.
Childs' widow, Ginger Stevenson Childs, told the Delaware County Daily Times that she "just sobbed" after Yeadon police told her of the arrest. Earlier in a Facebook post, she called the news "the best Christmas present ever."
"We are just very happy and relieved that he is off the street," the victim's sister, Sharon Conroy, said.
Authorities said in a criminal complaint that a woman from Philadelphia with whom Shelton shares a child told investigators that he came to her home on the day of the shooting "sweating heavily" and appearing nervous. She said she later went to North Carolina in April at his request, and he tearfully said he shot a man during a robbery because the victim "began to resist," but he couldn't provide details because he was "high at the time," authorities alleged.
A $20,000 reward had been posted for the arrest of Shelton, who is being held at the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office facility in Decatur, Georgia. Court documents don't list a defense attorney who could respond to the charges.
