Detective blames FBI agent for hampering a murder investigation

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News has obtained compelling video in which a Sandy Springs detective blames an FBI agent for hampering a murder investigation.

Consumer investigator Jim Strickland got the video from the defense lawyers working the case.

"You just had an FBI agent on duty lie to me and delay this investigation," says Detective J.T. Williams in the video.

Williams made the comment as he interrogated Mani Chulpayev, an FBI informant charged with helping a hit squad locate Atlanta hip-hop artist Lil Phat. Phat died in a what prosecutors call "an assassination" over stolen drugs.

Williams complained on video that Chulpayev's FBI handler, Special Agent Dante Jackson, refused the let local police question Chulpayev early in the investigation.

"What he does is, he tells a material witness in my case not to talk to us," Williams said.

"That wasn't true. I always wanted to talk," Chulpayev told the detective.

Williams said on video the FBI's Jackson finally admitted that his relationship with Chulpayev was not officially sanctioned, and against FBI rules.

"We could have wrapped this thing up and called it a day. But I was lied to. Not by you. Not by the shooters. I was lied to by an FBI agent," Williams said.

Williams said Jackson made the admission only days before Strickland exposed Chulpayev's relationship to the feds in a Channel 2 investigation one year ago.

Chulpayev is scheduled for trial early next year. He denies being involved. The FBI admitted its agent is under investigation but has refused multiple requests for further comment.

WSBTV