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Bond denied for soldier charged in Hinesville fatal shooting
Mealy 1
Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jermaine Ray Mealy is escorted to his first court appearance in the Liberty County jail Monday morning. He was denied bond on a murder charge stemming from a fatal shooting Saturday afternoon in his Waverly Court home. - photo by Lewis Levine

A soldier has been denied bond on a murder charge stemming from a fatal shooting Saturday afternoon in Hinesville.

Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jermaine Ray Mealy, 31, made his first court appearance Monday morning before Liberty County Magistrate Judge Gerald Morris, who denied him during a hearing in the Liberty County jail.

Interviewed Tuesday morning by phone, Mealy’s wife, Lisa Lynette Mealy, 45, said that when a superior-court judge holds another bond hearing later, Jermaine Mealy’s family will decide how to proceed.

Meanwhile, more details the shooting death of Nathaniel Brown, of Hinesville, emerged Monday.

An incident report filed by Hinesville police Officer Jeffrey Haiungs, who was dispatched to the shooting scene around 12:29 p.m. Saturday, states that while he was en route to the home on the 500 block of Waverly Court, the gunman, later identified as Mealy, was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher. Mealy told the dispatcher that Brown had been shot in the groin.

As Haiungs was walking toward the home, Mealy came out through the front door and told the officer that he and Brown were fighting for the gun when Mealy shot Brown, the report says. When Haiungs asked where the gun was, Mealy told the officer he had laid the gun on a table.

When Haiungs entered the home, he found Brown on his back in the bedroom, mostly inside a closet, with Mealy’s wife kneeling next to Brown, talking to him, the report says.

Haiungs could detect neither a pulse nor breathing when he checked Brown. The officer performed CPR on Brown until emergency medical personnel arrived and transported Brown to Liberty Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.

On Saturday, police Lt. Susie Jackson said the home had reportedly been burglarized at Friday evening.

An incident report on the burglary filed by Hinesville police Officer Jeffrey Allmond says he was dispatched to the Mealy residence at 10:39 p.m. Friday. He met Lisa Mealy inside the home and said she had not cleared it, so he and another officer searched and found no one inside.

Mealy said she left at about 6 p.m. to go to a friend’s house and when she returned at about 10:20 p.m., she noticed that a glass panel in her garage door was broken, the report says.

When she entered her home, she noticed that two large televisions inside had been moved and that the contents of her purses had been dumped onto the tables, prompting her to call police, according to the report.

A 32-inch television set had been removed from the mantle over the fireplace and set by the back door, and a 56-inch television had been moved from in front of the fireplace to the back door, the report says.

In the master bedroom, the dresser drawers had been pulled open, and the contents appeared to have been rifled through, according to the report. Items in the two spare bedrooms appeared to have been moved around, but nothing had been taken from them, the report says.

Mealy told police that $157 was taken from a purse on the living-room table, along with $60 that was on her dresser. She added that three Michael Kors watches with a total value of $489 — a black men’s watch, a silver men’s watch and a silver-and-gold women’s watch — were missing, along with an iPad, according to the report.

Mealy had notified her husband, who is stationed at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and was attending school in Texarkana, Texas, that everything was OK and the police were investigating it, Jackson said.

Apparently, Mealy drove through the night and, when he returned home, he found his wife in the home with Brown, according to Jackson.

During the brief phone interview Tuesday, Lisa Mealy said she is aware of the statements people have made on social media concerning her role in the situation.

“Rumors are rumors, and I can’t stop postings on social media,” she said. “The families involved know the truth, and I’m going to leave it at that.”

Mealy added that she is “very tired” and has “a lot going on” and declined to comment further.

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