Arrest made in slain Alabama twins case

By the CNN Wire Staff

updated 6:29 PM EDT, Sat June 9, 2012

(CNN) -- A 22-year-old man wanted in the shooting deaths of 9-year-old Alabama twins and their elderly babysitter was arrested Saturday morning, authorities said.

Deandra Marquis Lee was captured around 11 a.m. in Selma, the Alabama Bureau of Investigation announced.

Prior to his arrest, authorities converged on an apartment complex near the Vaughan Regional Medical Center and evacuated residents from his building.

Efforts to "initiate communication" with people inside the apartment were unsuccessful, the state investigative bureau said in a news release. Authorities then "made entry into the apartment (and) immediately took Lee into custody."

He is charged with three counts of murder in the deaths of the twins and their 73-year-old caregiver, Jack Mac Girdner.

The bodies of Girdner and the twins, Jordan and Taylor Dejerinett, were found Tuesday afternoon on a dirt road near Hayneville, southwest of Montgomery, state investigators said.

The children and Girdner, according to the bureau investigators, were last seen Sunday when the twins' mother left them in the care of the babysitter.

When the twins' mother returned later that night to pick them up from the suburban Montgomery home of the babysitter, the children and Girdner were missing, investigators said, along with Girdner's car, a 1988 Mercedes-Benz.

Authorities did not release a possible motive in the killings, though they confirmed the three victims were shot. State investigators also did not say what evidence connected Lee to the case.

Girdner's car was found -- with its doors removed -- Thursday in Minter, they said.

Lee, according to state investigators, has a history of trouble with the law. In 2011, he was acquitted of murder in a 2008 shooting that prosecutors say was gang related.

Before Sunday, Lee was out on bond following January 2012 charges in Dallas County that he assaulted a police officer and was in possession of gun with an altered ID number, state investigators said.

According to court records, Lee was also arrested on a third-degree robbery charge and released on $10,000 bond in Lowndes County in February 2012 for allegedly stealing a Honda Accord in 2011.