Brother, sister sentenced in Super 8 Motel homicide

A brother went to prison and his sister walked free Thursday as a judge sentenced two of four suspects in the 2014 fatal shooting of Troy Saunders at Columbus’ Warm Springs Road Super 8 Motel.

Judge Frank Jordan Jr. sentenced Christopher Kelvonte Womack to 20 years in prison, the maximum penalty for the voluntary manslaughter charge a jury convicted him of on May 6. Womack was tried for murder, but jurors chose the lesser offense in their verdict.

Jordan sentenced Womack’s sister, Niesha Jones, to seven years for aggravated assault, with two years to serve and the rest on probation. Having already spent two years in jail awaiting trial, she was freed with credit for time served.

Two codefendants, Trevon Brown and Mayson Deandrea Gibson, pleaded guilty to attempted armed robbery on July 6, when Jordan sentenced each to 20 years in prison.

The crime

The four were accused of fatally shooting Saunders while trying to rob his companion Joseph “Joey” Wilkes of marijuana during a Jan. 24, 2014, meeting that Jones arranged online.

Jones, who was 17 at the time, testified that her then-boyfriend Gibson proposed she use counterfeit money to buy marijuana from Wilkes, who had posted photos of the drug along with guns and cash on his Facebook page.

Wilkes, 21, of Phenix City, asked Saunders, 39, of Fort Mitchell, to give him a ride to the 2935 Warm Springs Road motel to meet Jones, who told Wilkes she had rented a motel room where they could smoke marijuana.

Brown, Gibson and Jones got into a pickup truck and picked Womack up on their way to the motel, where they parked in a front parking lot while Jones walked through the motel to the rear to wait, said prosecutor George Lipscomb. When Saunders and Wilkes arrived, Jones met them in the rear parking lot, where she got into their car to smoke marijuana, while Womack, Gibson and Brown walked through the motel to the rear entrance and waited.

When Jones spent more time than expected with the two Alabama men, Gibson wanted to rush out and rob them, but Womack wanted his sister out of the car first.

To assess the situation, Womack walked out, knocked on the car window and asked for a light. Before Jones handed him a cigarette lighter, Womack saw Wilkes reach into his jacket. When Womack went back into the motel, he told Brown and Gibson he suspected Wilkes was armed.

Next Gibson went to the car and asked to buy some marijuana, then pretended to notice Jones for the first time and in feigned outrage opened the rear door and pulled her out. As he did that, Jones spilled her purse, leaving her identification in Saunders’ car, authorities said.

Then Womack and Brown rushed the vehicle, guns drawn. Wilkes again reached toward his jacket before Womack warned him not to draw a weapon, after which Wilkes relented. But Saunders panicked, cranking the car to speed away as Womack and Brown opened fire.

One bullet punctured a tire on Saunders’ Buick Century; another hit the driver in the neck. Wilkes fired two shots into the air as Saunders, bleeding profusely, hit a curb that deflated a second tire, then got onto the road headed east, weaving and fishtailing.

Warm Springs Road becomes Gentian Boulevard just east of the motel. Saunders got about a quarter-mile away, near the Burger King at 3101 Gentian Blvd., when he bled to death. Wilkes steered the car off the road, got out, hid his pistol and went to the restaurant to call 911, Lipscomb said.

Jones and Gibson were arrested that same night, as police soon found her ID in Saunders’ car. Brown surrendered to police the following Jan. 28, and Womack was arrested in early February 2014. Authorities since have lost track of Wilkes.

Sentencing testimony

In court Thursday, a victim’s advocate read a statement on behalf of Saunders’ family, who wrote that they still found the heartache “numbing and unbearable,” adding, “Troy always had a smile on his face and knew how to make other people laugh.” All family gatherings now are marred by his absence, they said.

Womack’s family also addressed the court, his stepmother apologizing to Saunders’ family. “He’s not a bad kid,” she said of Womack. “I did what I could do to help him stay on the right path.”

Womack also spoke. “It was never my intention to hurt anybody,” he said. Turning to Saunders’ family, he told them: “I just want you to know that my deepest apologies go out to y’all.”

Womack’s attorney Michael Eddings asked Jordan for a sentence of one to five years, arguing Womack cooperated with police investigating Saunders’ death.

Lipscomb angrily rejected that. “He did not cooperate with the state,” said the prosecutor, who called the claim “outrageous.”

Jones’ sentencing was more cordial. Represented by attorney Susan Henderson, Jones told Jordan she is expecting her first child. Henderson said her client had been a straight-A student, and was four months shy of graduating high school when waylaid by her arrest.

She had planned to join the Navy and go to medical school, said Henderson, who along with Jones’ mother blamed Gibson for corrupting her.

Jones’ mother said Saunders’ homicide saved her daughter from a worse fate.

“This saved her life,” she said. “It took somebody’s life but it saved hers, too.”

This story was originally published August 4, 2016 at 12:27 PM with the headline "Brother, sister sentenced in Super 8 Motel homicide."