Prosecutor: Man killed at Double Churches park was in Bloods gang, made big drug deal

The Atlanta man killed execution-style at Columbus’ Double Churches Road Park last year was in a subset of the Bloods street gang and had thousands of dollars from a drug deal he’d just completed here, a prosecutor told a jury Tuesday.

Demonde Donya Dicks Jr. was in a gang called “Money Sex Murder,” which is affiliated with the Bloods, Senior Assistant District Attorney Don Kelly said in his opening statement to jurors in the trial of Jacquawn Clark, Derain Waller and A’keveius Powell.

The three face murder and other charges in Dicks’ fatal shooting June 15, 2016, on a basketball court at the 2300 Double Churches Road complex.

Kelly told jurors Dicks that Wednesday used an alias to take a shuttle from Atlanta to the Columbus Groome Transportation terminal at 2800 Harley Court, arriving about 11:30 a.m. before calling Clark to come give him a ride.

Clark drove Dicks to the Publix supermarket on Macon Road, where he picked up a wire transfer in Dicks’ name. Clark’s attorney, Jennifer Curry, said her client had his girlfriend wire him $40 for gas money, because his car was running on empty. Clark had no identification on him, so he had the money order sent to Dicks, who could accept it because he had an ID.

According to Kelly, Clark and Dicks then drove to a Family Dollar store on Buena Vista Road, where a white Chevrolet Camaro arrived at 1:26 p.m., its occupants there to meet Dicks. Dicks sent Clark into the store to buy plastic wrap, which he gave to someone in the car, Kelly said.

Leaving the store with Dicks, Clark stopped to pick up Waller, and the three headed north, stopping by a house to buy some marijuana and then traveling toward the park.

The texts

At 1:43 p.m., the suspects started exchanging texts, Kelly said.

“Diz man got 40 bands,” Kelly said Waller texted Powell, who was at home at Walden Pond Apartments, 7840 Moon Road. “He a murder homie, give me the green light.”

Powell did not know who Waller was talking about, and Waller couldn’t tell him, because he didn’t know Dicks’ name, Kelly said. All Waller could tell Powell was that Dicks was with Clark, whom Waller and Powell knew by the nickname “Sosa.”

Soon Powell texted Waller, “Green light, shawty,” but Waller replied that he would need a ride, to which Powell answered, “Don’t do it yet then ‘cause I ain’t got no wheels,” Kelly said.

Waller later texted Powell, “He got about 50k,” referring to $50,000, and Powell again gave Waller the go-ahead, Kelly said.

Then Waller texted Clark, “Let me do him,” and Clark replied, “I’m going to let you. Got to set it up, tho. I’m supposed to be rollin’,” Kelly said, telling jurors Clark added, “Have to kill him tho.”

Waller replied “IK” for “I know,” Kelly said.

As Dicks had planned to catch another shuttle back to Atlanta, the three men stopped off at the park, which was just down the road from the Groome terminal.

The shooting

Around 3 p.m., at the park’s basketball court, Waller shot Dicks through the back of the head, and he and Clark grabbed the backpack, ran back to their car and drove to Powell’s apartment, Kelly said.

At Walden Pond, Clark left the car he was driving and called his mother to come pick him up. He gave her an account of what had happened, and she insisted he return to the park to talk to the police.

At officers’ urging, Clark agreed to go to police headquarters for an interview, during which investigators read him his Miranda rights upon suspecting he was involved. They also got his phone and started going through the messages, finding texts through which they identified Waller and Powell, Kelly said.

Police arrested Clark when he returned for a second interview two days later. “I didn’t want this to happen,” Kelly said Clark told police.

That was the truth, said his attorney: Curry told jurors her client tried to extricate himself from the scheme Waller and Powell hatched, offering to set Dicks up later in the hope Dicks would catch a shuttle home before anything happened to him.

After the homicide, Clark was shocked and scared, and that’s why he called his mother, she said.

She told jurors that when the suspects referred to Dicks as “a murder,” they meant his gang affiliation, “Money Sex Murder,” not a homicide.

Curry said also that investigators could not say who was in the white Camaro, and they had no evidence Dicks ever actually had any drugs or money.

William Kendrick, who’s representing Waller along with Mark Shelnutt, asked jurors to note all the evidence the prosecution is lacking: Authorities have no gun to match a bullet to, no gunshot residue on the suspects, no DNA evidence linking them to the slaying, and no eyewitness who can identify them as the killers.

Susan Henderson, Powell’s attorney, thought prosecutors had so little evidence against her client that her opening statement took only four minutes.

She said phone data searches would show that before that day, Powell had heard little or nothing from his codefendants, and his texts show he didn’t know whom they were with, where they were or what they had planned.

And Powell clearly wasn’t present when Dicks fatally was shot, she said: “He was home at Walden Pond Apartments off Moon Road in north Columbus.”

Each defendant is charged with murder, armed robbery and violating Georgia’s criminal gang participation law, Kelly said, alleging that they, like Dicks, also are affiliated with the Bloods. Waller is charged also with using a gun to commit a crime, Kelly said.

The trial resumes Wednesday in Judge William Rumer’s Government Center courtroom.

This story was originally published October 17, 2017 at 5:57 PM with the headline "Prosecutor: Man killed at Double Churches park was in Bloods gang, made big drug deal."