Jury reaches second verdict of the day in Peachtree Mall murder trial

The jury in the trial of three alleged gangster charged with killing man last year at Columbus’ Peachtree Mall has reached a second verdict after the first was rejected Wednesday.

Judge Frank Jordan Jr. called attorneys to the courtroom about 3:30 p.m. to hear the jury’s decision.

Here is the verdict:

Xzavaien Trevon Jones, 19, was found guilty on all counts, malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, gang violence and using a firearm to commit a crime.

His sister Tekoa Chantrell Young, 24, was found guilty of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and gang violence

Terell Raquez McFarland, 26, was found guilty of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and gang violence

Defense attorneys for Young and McFarland moved for a mistrial, arguing the judge’s charge to the jury to reach a unanimous verdict placed undue pressure on the lone holdout, who after the earlier verdict told the court she did not think the evidence was sufficient to convict Young and McFarland. She so informed the court as the judge polled jurors individually to ask whether their verdict was freely and voluntarily given. She said hers was not.

Courtroom security was heavy as the verdict was announced, with about 25 deputies in uniform or in plain clothes present.

Here is Wednesday’s earlier report:

Soon after the jury announced guilty verdicts on all counts in the trial of three alleged gangsters charged in a fatal shooting last year at Columbus’ Peachtree Mall, the verdicts were set aside Wednesday after one juror said her votes on two defendants were not free or voluntary.

Judge Frank Jordan then gave jurors what’s called an “Allen charge” urging them to reach a unanimous verdict, and sent them back for further deliberations.

It was the latest setback in a trial plagued by disputes and delays. The jury’s former foreperson last week was replaced with an alternate after four other jurors complained she would not deliberate. On Tuesday the court adjourned early after a juror fell and injured her ankle during a lunch break.

Attorneys said that was the same juror who Wednesday told the court her verdicts were not voluntary. She was walking with a cane.

The woman said she agreed to find Xzavaien Trevon Jones, 19, guilty on all counts, including murder, aggravated assault, gang violence and using a firearm to commit a crime. But she did not feel the evidence was sufficient to find Jones’ 24-year-old sister Tekoa Chantrell Young or 26-year-old co-defendant Terell Raquez McFarland guilty of murder, assault and gang violence.

Defense attorneys moved for a mistrial. Chief Assistant District Attorney Al Whitaker asked Jordan either to accept the partial verdict of Jones’ guilt or give jurors the Allen charge and send them back to deliberate further.

The Allen charge sometimes is called "The Dynamite Charge," intended to move a deadlocked jury off an entrenched position.

Defense attorneys Mark Shelnutt, who with William Kendrick represents Young, and Nancy Miller, who represents McFarland, both objected, saying the charge would only put undue pressure on the lone holdout.

After Jordan gave the charge, Shelnutt objected that the judge omitted a sentence saying no juror had to surrender an honest conclusion regarding the defendants’ guilt or innocence.

The reconstituted jury with a new foreperson began deliberating late Monday morning, after two delays caused by tornado warnings. It had deliberated 10 hours when the verdict was announced about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.

The trial is in its third week. Two days of deliberations last week were set aside after Jordan replaced the foreperson and instructed the new jury on the law by which it must weigh the evidence. Alternate jurors hear the trial evidence, but they do not sit in on deliberations unless called to substitute or replace a juror who cannot continue. When an alternate joins the jury during deliberations, the deliberations have to start over.

Authorities allege the three defendants are associated with the Crips street gang, and that they gunned down 24-year-old Anthony Meredith outside the entrance to the mall’s food court to avenge the Nov. 21, 2015, death of Young’s boyfriend Christopher Twitty, who also was a Crip.

Jones is alleged to have shot Meredith 10 times as Young and McFarland watched around 7:30 p.m. on March 26, 2016, the Saturday before Easter. Meredith died at the hospital about 30 minutes later.

Meredith and Twitty had a dispute over Meredith’s fronting Twitty about $3,000 worth of marijuana, for which Twitty never paid, investigators said.

Whitaker said their conflict sparked a cycle of violence. Someone shot up Twitty’s home in August 2015, then Meredith was shot in the cheek and spent three weeks in the hospital. Twitty was killed in a home invasion three days after Meredith was released, the prosecutor said.

Witnesses testified that Young, McFarland, Meredith and Twitty all knew each other from Hardaway High School, where Meredith, Twitty and McFarland played football. Meredith’s girlfriend Shanna Douglas testified that Young got to be her “best friend” at Hardaway. Though Young’s brother Jones was too young for high school then, Douglas said she got to know him while hanging out with Young.

This story was originally published May 3, 2017 at 4:01 PM with the headline "Jury reaches second verdict of the day in Peachtree Mall murder trial."