Murder case goes to jury
By John Joyce
Published in News on September 11, 2014 2:06 PM
Javonta Ellis and Stephon Jennings did not murder 34-year-old Kevin Bell.
That was the message delivered in a Wayne County courtroom by witnesses who took the stand for the defense before closing arguments unfolded and the case was handed over to a jury Wednesday.
Ellis' aunt, Chiquita Coley, and grandmother, Linda Ellis, said the 17-year-old was home the night of the shooting.
And Levonne Carroll said she saw two men running from the scene -- neither of whom were the young man she said she has known since he was a boy.
Jefferson Davis, the lone witness called by Jennings' attorney, Mary Darrow, said he also saw two people running down Hugh Street within moments of the shooting -- one of them, carrying a gun in his pocket.
But neither of the men he saw were present in the courtroom, he said.
Assistant District Attorney Mike Ricks, though, was not moved by Davis' testimony.
He asked the witness if it was true he had spoken with Ellis' brother, Travonta before he took the stand -- if it was he who compelled Davis to go to police and tell them it was not Jennings and Ellis he saw that night.
Davis admitted that was the case.
And Ricks asked the man if he had a drinking problem when the shooting occurred in 2012.
Davis said that was not true -- that his drinking had been a problem the year before; that on the night of the murder, he only had "a couple of beers."
During closing arguments, both defense attorneys questioned each statement given to police by the state's witnesses during the investigation.
They brought up the many discrepancies in the descriptions of the suspects given by Travis James and Brandon Leach, the two eyewitnesses to the murder.
And each attorney called into question the investigative tactics of Goldsboro Police Department investigators -- how none of the evidence collected at the scene was put through forensic analysis.
As of press time, the fate of the two teenagers charged with murder in connection with Bell's death was in the hands of the jury.
Jennings and Ellis are each charged with a single count of first-degree murder and one count of attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon.
A death caused in the commission of a felony constitutes first-degree murder, according to state law.
For the verdict, as it is delivered, follow www.NewsArgus.com