A Decatur man told a doctor and police he had suicidal and homicidal thoughts soon before his father-- Clarke Central High School Assistant Principal Miller Jordan Jr. -- and grandfather were killed, an Alabama police chief said Wednesday.
Miller William Jordan III, 22, made the claims when questioned Wednesday afternoon in Alabama, where he was arrested two days after the killings, covered in blood and driving his father's car, according to Kelvin Mitchell, the chief of police at Hayneville, Ala.
Detectives were expected to return Mr. Jordan to Decatur on Wednesday night. A preliminary hearing for Mr. Jordan, who faces two counts of murder, is scheduled for Friday morning in Decatur Municipal Court.
Police say Mr. Jordan fatally stabbed his father and grandfather, Miller Jordan Sr., at his parents' house on Village Walk Court in Decatur. The bodies were found Sunday.
Chief Mitchell was watching for drunken New Year's Eve revelers about 1 a.m. Tuesday when he stopped Mr. Jordan's car for running over a curb.
Decatur detectives interviewed Mr. Jordan at the John Hewlett Detention Center in Hayneville hours after he agreed to return to Georgia during a jailhouse extradition hearing, officials said.
"He spoke of going to the hospital either that morning or the day before (the killings), and the doctor didn't prescribe him anything," said Chief Mitchell, who sat in when Decatur police detectives questioned Mr. Jordan. "He also said he went to metro Atlanta police and they couldn't offer any help, so he kind of blamed police for not helping him because he told them he was suicidal and possibly homicidal."
The police chief said that when he initially spoke with him Tuesday morning, Mr. Jordan seemed disoriented and claimed to not know why police in Decatur were looking for him. He explained the cuts on his hands and his blood-soaked clothes came from being injured by a circular saw while on a job in Birmingham, and said he was looking for a hospital when stopped in Hayneville, Chief Mitchell said.
When interviewed Wednesday, "he knew his father and grandfather were both dead and had been murdered," according to Chief Mitchell, who would not say whether Mr. Jordan confessed.
While being grilled by detectives, Mr. Jordan at times was irate, then remorseful, according to Chief Mitchell.
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