MOUNTAIN CITY — The Johnson County Sheriff’s Department arrested two men on first-degree murder charges Tuesday morning, completing an intensive, weeklong search for the killers of Billy Clay Payne Jr., 36, and his girlfriend Billie Jean Hayworth, 23, while leaving the couple’s 6-month-old child alive in his mother’s arms. 
 
 Sheriff Mike Reece said Marvin E. “Buddy” Potter Jr., 60, 727 Hospital Road, and Jamie Lynn Curd, 38, 2358 Pleasant Valley Road, were taken into custody without incident. 
 
 The sheriff said the motive for the killings of the young couple was “senseless and stupid.” Potter was angry about Internet and telephone communications between the couple and his daughter. 
 
 Reece said the arrests were the culmination of an investigation by his department and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation in which officers interviewed between 150 and 170 people. 
 
 He said Potter and Curd were among the list of suspects at the start of the investigation and as more and more people were interviewed some suspects dropped off the list, but Potter and Curd kept returning. Finally, information gleaned from the interviews led to the department interviewing Potter and Curd with a polygraph. Things soon came into focus when Curd began to cooperate after the polygraph test. 
 
 The TBI reported Payne and Hayworth made complaints against Potter’s daughter last year for harassing them by telephone and over the Internet. Curd, who is Payne’s second cousin, went to court in defense of Potter’s daughter. 
 
 When the bodies of Payne and Hayworth were discovered inside their residence at 128 James Davis Lane on Jan. 31, Reece said his department had few clues. There was no forced entry, no weapons were found and there did not appear to be a struggle. 
 
 The last person to see the couple alive was Payne’s father. The couple lived in his house and he left for work in Boone, N.C., at 5:30 a.m. The bodies were discovered by a friend five hours later. 
 
 Reece said Payne was found in his bedroom with a gunshot wound to the head and his throat cut. Hayworth was found in the baby’s bedroom. She had been shot in the head. The child was uninjured and has been taken in by family members. 
 
 “I am really proud of my officers,” Reece said of the effort to seek justice for the slain family. “They worked many long hours during the past week and didn’t see much of their own families.” ||||| A father who was upset after a Tennessee couple deleted his adult daughter as a friend on Facebook has been charged in the shooting deaths of the couple, authorities said Wednesday. 
 
 The victims had complained to police that Marvin's Potter's daughter was harassing them after they deleted her as a friend on the social networking site, Johnson County Sheriff Mike Reece said Wednesday. 
 
 Potter, 60, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in last week's slayings of Billy Payne Jr. and his girlfriend, Billie Jean Hayworth. The couple was shot to death in their Mountain City home in the far northeast corner of the state. Their 8-month-old baby was found unharmed in Hayworth's arms. 
 
 "It's a senseless thing," the sheriff said. 
 
 Authorities have been involved other cases where Potter's daughter, Jenelle Potter, believed she had been slighted by someone. 
 
 Marvin Potter's friend, Jamie Curd, has also been charged in the killings. Curd, 38, had romantic feelings for Jenelle Potter, 30, the sheriff said. 
 
 Potter and Curd were arraigned Wednesday. Potter asked for time to hire an attorney while Curd was assigned a public defender who did not immediately return a phone message. 
 
 Assistant District Attorney General Matthew Roark said Curd's initial bond was raised to $1.5 million while Roark agreed to put off a bond hearing for Potter until next week, when he is expected to have an attorney. Potter remains jailed on his initial $200,000 bond. 
 
 The victims lived with Billy Payne Sr., who was the last person to see them alive. He told detectives he saw Hayworth get up to feed the baby before he left for work at about 5:30 a.m. on Jan. 31. 
 
 The slayings were discovered about five hours later when a former neighbor stopped by to pick up mail the family would save for him. 
 
 The younger Payne was found in his bedroom, and Hayworth was found in the baby's room.
– Two Tennessee men have been charged with killing a couple over what police describe as a "senseless and stupid" motive: A defriending on Facebook. Marvin Potter, 60, was enraged by the couple's decision to scratch his 30-year-old daughter from their list of friends, according to police. The two were found shot dead in their home, with their 8-month-old daughter lying unharmed in her mother's arms, reports AP. Potter was charged with first-degree murder after an intensive week-long police investigation, reports the Johnson City Press. Investigators found that the couple had complained about Potter's daughter harassing them on the Internet and over the phone. A friend of Potter's, who police said had romantic feelings for his daughter, has been charged as an accessory to murder.