Two Walton County residents face first-degree murder charges

A Walton County grand jury has returned indictments against Teresa McKee for the death of 45-year-old Stephanie Lockwood and against Jeffrey Allen Yates for the death of 60-year-old Elizabeth Andrews.

Assistant State Attorney Bobby Elmore, who is handling both cases, said the state likely will determine next week whether to seek the death penalty in the cases.

Walton County deputies found Lockwood’s body inside her mobile home off County Road 1084 in the Liberty community near DeFuniak Springs shortly after 9 p.m. Aug. 11 after a neighbor had reported hearing gunshots.

According to her arrest report, McKee, 44, confessed to shooting Lockwood. She told investigators that she arrived at the home carrying a gun and that she fired two shots — one of which killed Lockwood — after the two women argued.

Investigators would not speculate on a motive.

McKee initially was charged with second-degree murder and pleaded not guilty.

However, Elmore said the second-degree murder charge was filed initially “just as a method for us to hold her without bail until the grand jury could meet.”

Yates also initially faced second-degree murder charges. But according to a press release from State Attorney Bill Eddins, he now is charged with “first-degree premeditated murder or felony murder with a weapon or firearm, robbery armed with firearm or other deadly weapon and carjacking with a firearm or deadly weapon” in the death of Andrews.

Andrews was found shot to death in her home near Gaskin on Aug. 17. An arrest warrant was issued a few days later for Yates, who had been doing odd jobs around Andrews’s home.

On Aug. 20, Paxton Mayor Hayward Thomas spotted Andrews’ Ford F-350 pickup truck on New Ebenezer Road near the Alabama line and contacted lawmen. Yates, who was driving the truck, allegedly threw a firearm and clothing out of the window during a low-speed pursuit before he was arrested by Okaloosa County sheriff’s deputies.

“I feel bad for his family, because I know what it’s like for me to lose somebody, but as far as how I feel about it, I don’t know,” said Kerri Balo, Andrews’ daughter. “It’s real hard for me right now … Even though he did what he did, I think about his family. Right now, I pray to God to give me a little bit of forgiveness — He’s got a mama somewhere that this has got to bother.”