Savannah murder suspect indicted for separate strangulation while out on bond

by Madalyn Bierster

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - A grand jury has indicted a Savannah man accused of strangling a woman in front of a child while he was out on bond for a 2022 murder charge.

25-year-old Shawn Antonio Campbell Jr., has been arrested 3 separate times since posting bond for felony murder.

The grand jury indicted him this week on multiple charges including aggravated assault, aggravated stalking, burglary in the 1st degree, criminal trespass family violence, and cruelty to children.

The indictment alleges he kicked in the door of a woman’s home in February and strangled her in front of her child.

Campbell was originally accused of shooting and killing 42-year-old Timothy Lewis on New Castle Street in 2022.

Lewis leaves behind 3 children, and countless loved ones in mourning.

The suspect was 21 at the time of this homicide.

Court documents say the two argued at a celebration of life event. The victim helped Campbell leave, but when Campbell returned for his phone, documents say he shot Lewis.

Bond granted after jail time

After nearly a year and a half in jail, a judge granted Campbell bond for $20,000. His paperwork showed house arrest with an ankle monitor, but 11 months later, a judge allowed him to remove it.

He has been without the monitor since 2024, before any of the three alleged crimes occurred.

Since posting bond, Campbell has been arrested for assault, battery, robbery, criminal trespassing and simple assault in 2 other cases.

Savannah defense attorney Boone Phillips said there are two situations where murder suspects can be granted bond.

“One is dependent upon the facts and the circumstances of the case,” Phillips said. “If the case isn’t strong, if there’s a defensible position on the part of the defendant, for instance, if it’s a self-defense case, bond is usually more likely to happen in that scenario.”

Phillips said the other scenario is when justice gets delayed.

“If court dates get passed, if the state announces not ready, then the judge will kind of balance the defendant’s interest with the society’s interest in releasing him, and then usually he or she will grant bond to that individual if the case is passed for someone else’s, because the state’s not ready,” Phillips said.

Case delays

Attorney changes, court delays, and a GBI ballistics backlog have all slowed this case.

Phillips said it is rare to get bond on a murder case to begin with, and he has seen people bonded on murder charges pick up other charges.

“It’s really rare to get a bond on a murder case to begin with, and so a lot of people that are bonded on murder charges, I have seen pick up other charges, other violent charges, sometimes non-violent charges, and that’s pretty common,” said Phillips.

“I think that who’s responsible is the individual who committed these crimes, allegedly,” Phillips said. “Courts operate with immunity, judges operate with immunity, prosecutors operate with immunity, so they can’t be held civilly responsible for something that an individual does with their free will.”

Phillips said he would expect the state’s office to revoke bond in the original case when someone on bond for a felony-- commits a new felony.

“I also imagine it would be really hard to get a bond on a second felony whenever you’re already on bond for murder,” Phillips said.

Phillips said the GBI appears to be understaffed and overworked.

“Every case that I’m a part of, we are way behind on getting the GBI results back,” Phillips said. “I think that something needs to happen there and that they probably need to make some changes to have this backlog fixed a little bit, because every drug case, rape cases, the rape kits, all, I mean, we are seeing backlogs across the board from GBI.”

Campbell is in jail on this most recent February arrest.