Man pleads to manslaughter in fatal shooting at downtown parking deck

The man who last month claimed he was defending his cousins when he fatally shot Arthur Holt Jr. in downtown Columbus three days before Christmas 2013 has pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter.

Marquis Tirese Shaw, 24, made that plea Monday before Muscogee Superior Court Judge William Rumer, who set Shaw’s sentencing for 2 p.m. May 9. Shaw’s initial charges were murder and aggravated assault.

In hearings on Feb. 20 and 21, Shaw argued he should be immune from prosecution under Georgia’s self-defense law, which lets a resident use deadly force “if he or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent death or great bodily injury to himself or herself or a third person or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.”

His defense attorneys, Mark Shelnutt and William Kendrick, maintained Shaw acted within the bounds of the law on Dec. 22, 2013, when he saw Holt point a gun at his friends during a fight atop the rear parking deck of Columbus’ Hardaway Building, 945 Broadway.

After the shooting, the owners blocked public access to the parking deck on weekends.

Testifying on Feb. 21, Shaw said he and his friends walked to the parking deck after getting kicked out of Mario’s Restaurant & Pub, 1010 Broadway. When they reached the deck, Shaw’s cousin Marchello Tripp exchanged words with Darrell Boggans, a friend of Holt’s, and Tripp and Boggans started fighting.

It was during this 3 a.m. fistfight that another friend of Holt’s, Brandon Fortson, pulled out a .45-caliber pistol. Shaw saw the gun, came up behind Fortson and used his 9mm pistol to hit Fortson over the head, hoping to knock him out.

Fortson staggered, turned and started shooting at Shaw, who ducked behind parked cars and dodged away.

When Fortson started shooting, another cousin of Shaw’s, Deondra Richardson, shouted “I’m hit!” and fell against Tripp, pulling him to the pavement. Richardson testified Feb. 20 that he was not wounded, but played dead in the hope he and Tripp would not be injured.

Shaw said he heard Richardson say he was hit, and then saw Holt on the ground with a pistol aimed at his cousins. He fired two shots at Holt and fled, he said.

Holt, 26, later died from the wounds inflicted by Shaw’s 9mm, but he also had a .40-caliber bullet in his chest, a detective testified. Police don’t know where that shot came from, the investigator said, as the only gun recovered was Fortson’s.

Shaw told the court he later threw his pistol into a creek off Dillingham Street in Phenix City, where his grandmother lives.

He said he and Holt did not know each other and had no previous conflict.

After the February hearings, Judge Rumer rejected Shaw’s claim of immunity from prosecution for acting in defense of others.

This story was originally published March 28, 2017 at 3:18 PM with the headline "Man pleads to manslaughter in fatal shooting at downtown parking deck."