An arrest has been made in the murder of Adair Freeman, 19, who was gunned down outside his father’s recording studio on January 24. [LINK]
U.S. Marshals arrested Melvin Bardwell, 25, last Monday morning at the West Houston apartment building where he was hiding out. Police have charged him with homicide and aggravated robbery. Bardwell’s accomplice who drove the getaway vehicle from the shooting scene remains at large.
Police say Bardwell was the gunman who ambushed and robbed Freeman of his fake diamond chain before shooting him in the chest and leaving him to die in the parking lot of his father’s Hot Beats studio. Freeman still had $90 in his pockets.
Bardwell was identified as a suspect in Freeman’s murder through a tip called into the Crime Stoppers program.
Bardwell has a lengthy criminal history, which includes a jewelry store heist in 2005 in his hometown of New Orleans that netted him over $500,000 in stolen jewelry.
According to New Orleans PD, Bardwell, then 21, held an employee at gunpoint while another man robbed an eastern New Orleans jewelry store. Bardwell and his accomplice were quickly apprehended and the stolen jewelry was recovered.
Bardwell was released from a Georgia prison last October after doing a 3-year bid for aggravated assault. He was living with his mother in Tucker, GA at the time of the Freeman murder.