Man arrested, charged with murder for role in 2015 shooting

Published 12:19 pm Friday, October 27, 2017

A LaGrange man wanted for his involvement in a 2015 murder was arrested in Mobile County, Alabama Thursday by the U.S. Marshal’s Service.

Ralphale Andrew Neal, 26, was arrested for his role in the death of Tobias Ogletree at Good Times Bar on Hogansville Road on Aug. 30, 2015. Ogletree was shot in the back and was transported to WellStar West Georgia Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead from his injures, according to the LPD press release.

Neal was charged with felony murder, murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during commission of certain crimes, according to the LPD. He is listed on the Mobile County Jail website, but will soon be extradited to Troup County Jail.

Sgt. William Nelson with the LPD said arresting Neal will hopefully bring closure to Ogletree’s family.

“We’re really happy today that we can offer that to this family,” he said. “It obviously doesn’t bring their loved one back, but it does give them some semblance of closure at least to begin. We’re looking forward to getting this into the court of law so we can help them with that as well.”

Nelson said the police department has been actively working the case since the shooting and that the marshal’s service was able to locate him.

“We don’t actually close any of our cold murder cases, they’re open all the time,” Nelson said. “We do annual reviews of cases, but this case we have been working on since the day it started, so it’s not just a situation of did we just pick it up and find new evidence.”