Deondre Jackson

A 23-year-old convicted felon was taken into custody earlier today in the September robbery and shooting death of a young father killed over $5 and a pair of Michael Jordan shoes.

Deondre Jackson was arrested by Birmingham police patrol officers and booked into the Jefferson County Jail at 12:40 a.m. He is charged with capital murder in the Sept. 29 slaying 22-year-old Byron Ulrick Pritchett Jr.

At 6 p.m. that evening, Pritchett was visiting relatives in Birmingham's Collegeville community when family members say three men - one of them wielding an assault-type rifle - jumped out from behind a dumpster, robbed him and then shot him. After they fled, said the victim's mother, Latanya King, Pritchett used his cell phone to call his father and then his mother. "He was just calling my name,'' she said. "I said, 'I'm on my way to the hospital.''

Because he was alert enough to call, King assumed her wounded son would survive. When she got to UAB Hospital, however, the news was dire. Doctors already had resuscitated him once and taken him into surgery. That's when his heart stopped again and, despite their attempts to revive him, he was pronounced dead at 7:59 p.m.

"It hurt,'' King said. "He took a piece of my heart with him."

Pritchett's watch, Jordans and $5 were taken from him. "They were targeting him, I guess because they thought he had something,'' King said. "It's just senseless."

More than 100 family members and friends held a vigil for Pritchett one week after his slaying. At that point, they knew Jackson was the prime suspect and were just waiting for him to be captured.

Family members said Pritchett was just a couple of months away from finishing his GED. He worked odd jobs as a laborer, and spent a lot of time with his three children - ages 5, 3 and 1 - as well as his nine brothers and sisters, some of who are the same age as his own children. "He loved to make you laugh,'' his mother said. "He wanted to be a comedian."

His uncle, Rufus Collins, said he married into the family in 2000 and spent time with Pritchett almost every weekend since then. "He was just somebody that kept you laughing,'' Collins said. "He was just somebody you always wanted to have around."

Pritchett was buried on Oct. 8.

Jackson lives in Tarrant and is being held without bond in the county jail. At the time of his arrest, he already was awaiting trial on charges of cocaine possession, being felon in possession of a firearm, theft of property and unlawful breaking and entering a vehicle.

The theft and vehicle break-in charges were obtained by Birmingham police in 2015. The other charges stem from a traffic stop by Tarrant police in August of this year.'

Tarrant police Det. Sgt. Phillip George said Jackson was one of three people stopped by an officer on Aug. 22. All three of those inside the car tried to jump out and flee, but were quickly detained. They gave police consent to search the car where three guns were recovered - one in each seat of the three suspects. Jackson was also in possession of a baggie of cocaine.

Jackson was just 17 when he was convicted of first-degree robbery. He was sentenced to five years in prison in that. According to jail records, Jackson is also facing a new robbery charge from an incident that also happened on Aug. 22. Details of that crime weren't immediately available.