Police: Suspect said man killed at Double Churches park was ‘touching the white’

Demonde Donya Dicks Jr. died with $102, a pack of Newports and a cigarette lighter in his pockets.

A cellphone, a cigarette butt and a 9 mm shell casing were on the ground beside him at the northwest corner of a basketball court in Columbus’ Double Churches Road Park, where he lay clad in a white shirt, white shorts, white socks and dark flip-flops when witnesses found him dead from a gunshot wound to the head around 3 p.m. June 15, 2016.

During a second day of testimony Wednesday in Muscogee Superior Court, jurors in the murder trial of three alleged gang members charged in Dicks’ death learned more about how police believe he came to be there.

Much of that information came from police interviews with suspect Jacquawn Clark, who is charged in Dicks’ death along with Derain Waller and A’keveius Powell.

Investigators questioned Clark twice, once on the day of the homicide, when Clark came to them to volunteer what he knew, and again two days later, when they arrested him.

According to Detective Mark Scruggs, Clark told officers he was headed to a job interview that Wednesday when Dicks called him for a ride. Dicks, who lived in Atlanta, had taken a shuttle from the Atlanta airport to the Groome Transportation station off Fortson Road at 2800 Harley Court, where he arrived with a backpack that police have never found.

After Clark dropped by Groome to get Dicks, they drove to the Publix supermarket at 3201 Macon Road to pick up a $40 money order Clark needed because he was running out of gas, Scruggs testified. The money order bore a time stamp of 1:12 p.m.

Then the pair drove to a Family Dollar store on Floyd Road, where Dicks sent Clark inside to buy plastic wrap and Karo corn syrup. The store didn’t have the syrup, Clark told police, so he went back outside with the wrap.

Scruggs said Clark told police that when he went back out, he saw Dicks leaning into the window of a white Chevrolet Camaro. Dicks gave the plastic wrap to the car’s occupants before they “dapped” or tapped their fists together and parted company.

Prosecutors allege Dicks made a drug deal there, though defense attorneys say authorities have no evidence to prove that. Scruggs said Clark told officers Dicks had come to Columbus to “make some moves.” Asked what that meant, Clark said Dicks was “touching the white,” a reference to cocaine, Scruggs testified.

Leaving the store, Clark and Dicks stopped by a house where Dicks bought marijuana, then picked up Waller on their way back to the north side of town. Clark told officers Dicks was to take a Groome shuttle back to Atlanta, but first they looked for a place to smoke.

They decided the Groome terminal was too busy, so they drove to the park about a mile away, and walked to the basketball court.

It was during this road trip north that the suspects started texting each other, with Powell orchestrating Dicks’ fatal shooting via messages sent from his home at Walden Pond Apartments, 7840 Moon Road, prosecutors said.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Don Kelly told jurors Tuesday that Waller told Powell Dicks had $40,000, and asked for the OK to kill him. Waller also texted Clark, “Let me do him,” to which Clark agreed, Kelly said.

At the park’s basketball court, Dicks, Clark and Waller smoked a marijuana cigarette before they turned to leave. Scruggs said Clark told detectives Dicks was walking beside him, on his left, when he heard a gunshot, and Dicks fell.

Clark and Waller grabbed Dicks’ backpack and ran to the black 2016 Chevrolet Monte Carlo that Clark had borrowed from his grandfather and drove to Walden Pond Apartments to meet Powell, authorities said.

That’s where Clark left the black Chevrolet and called his mother to come pick him up. When Clark told his mother what happened, she insisted he return to the park to talk to police.

That evening he was questioned at police headquarters, where officers collected his clothes and cell phone before they let him leave. He returned two days later, when they confronted him with the text messages found on his phone, and then arrested him.

“He became very nervous,” when asked about the texts, Scruggs said. He said Clark told investigators he had not wanted to rob Dicks, who belonged to the “Money Sex Murder” subset of the Bloods street gang.

“He denied having any interest in robbing Mr. Dicks,” Scruggs testified, saying Clark told officers, “If anything happened to him, it would be on my face card,” meaning he would be subject to gang retaliation.

Prosecutors allege the three suspects on trial also are associated with the Bloods.

The witness testifying Wednesday to how Dicks’ body lay at the park’s basketball court was crime-scene investigator Matthew Newsome. Among the photographs he took was one of Dick’s cellphone, with the screen alight. That screen said the time was 6:03 p.m., and Dicks had five new messages and 12 missed calls.

Defense attorneys asked Newsome about those calls and messages, but he had no information on their content or origin.

Defense attorneys have said authorities have no evidence against their clients other than the exchange of texts, which are open to interpretation and prove no guilt. Police still can’t say who was in the white Camaro at the Family Dollar store, and have no proof that Dicks came to Columbus with cocaine he exchanged for a substantial amount of money, the defense says.

Each defendant is on trial for murder, armed robbery and violating Georgia’s criminal gang participation law. Waller is charged also with using a gun to commit a crime.

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

This story was originally published October 18, 2017 at 5:31 PM with the headline "Police: Suspect said man killed at Double Churches park was ‘touching the white’."