Screams, hugs and tears: Families react to verdicts in the Double Churches murder trial

Friends and family on both sides of Judge William Rumer’s courtroom began crying Friday as a clerk read verdicts in the murder trial of three men charged with killing and robbing Demonde Donya Dicks Jr. last year at Columbus’ Double Churches Road Park.

For those there to support suspects Jacquawn Clark, Derain Waller and A’keveius Powell, the news initially sounded hopeful: Clark’s verdict was announced first, and he was found not guilty of most charges — not guilty of malice murder, not guilty of felony murder, not guilty of criminal gang activity. The jury found him guilty only of armed robbery.

Across the aisle dividing the courtroom audience, some in Dicks’ family began to hug each other and cry.

Then came Waller’s verdict, and a sense of relief shifted from one side of the room to the other:

Waller was found not guilty of malice or intentional murder, and not guilty of criminal gang activity, but he was found guilty of felony murder for killing Dicks while committing the felony of armed robbery, and of armed robbery and using a gun to commit a felony.

Then the clerk read Powell’s verdict: He also was acquitted of malice murder and criminal gang activity, but he was found guilty of felony murder and armed robbery.

As the suspects’ side of the courtroom cleared, a woman began to scream in despair. Dicks’ family continued to hug and weep as they filed out.

The penalties

The result is that all three defendants could be facing life in prison when Rumer sentences them at 2 p.m. Nov. 9. Though Clark’s armed robbery conviction typically carries a penalty of 10 to 20 years, the judge has the option of giving him life, under Georgia law.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Don Kelly said prosecutors will argue a life sentence is appropriate in this case, as the robbery resulted in Dicks’ death. A life sentence means each defendant has to serve at least 30 years before he’s eligible for parole. Clark now is 20 years old. Waller is 26, and Powell is 22.

The prosecution’s theory was that Dicks, 24, was in the Atlanta gang “Sex Money Murder,” a subset of the Bloods, and he came to Columbus on June 15, 2016, to make a cocaine deal. He took a shuttle from the Atlanta airport to the Groome Transportation terminal in Columbus, where his friend Clark picked him up about 12:40 p.m.

They drove to Publix on Macon Road to get a money order, then to a Family Dollar on Floyd Road where police believe Dicks sold the cocaine and put $40,000 in his backpack. Then they picked up Waller, bought some marijuana and went to the park to smoke it.

On the way, Waller texted Powell, who was home at Walden Pond Apartments on Moon Road. Waller told him Dicks had $40,000, or “40 bands,” and added, “He a murder homie. Give me the green light.” To that Powell replied, “Green light shawty.”

At the park, Waller shot Dicks through the back of the head, and he and Clark grabbed the backpack, ran to their car and drove to Walden Pond Apartments to meet Powell.

The victim’s family

After Thursday’s verdict, Dicks’ mother, Sheila Foye, stood with nine relatives outside the district attorney’s office and talked about the eldest son she lost.

“One thing that I do want to mention is that there was a lot of victim-blaming in this case, which is very sad and unfortunate,” she told reporters. “I also want to mention that our youth are losing their lives; they’re being killed and they’re going to jail. So it really grieves me that these young men did this to my son, that they felt they had the right to do this.”

Referring to Dicks as “D.J.,” she said he had a gentle heart: “Anybody that knew D.J. would not have done this. D.J. was very mild mannered, loved to laugh, good cook, athlete, big brother, son, grandson. I can’t tell you why he belonged to a gang. He didn’t need to belong to a gang…. He did have a beautiful heart and spirit.”

He had wanted to be a professional athlete, and talked of going to barber school and of running a food truck in Atlanta, where he was from, though he also had family in Columbus, she said.

“As I always told him, I’m proud of him. I’m proud of my son, and nothing will ever change that,” Foye said.

“I know what I taught my son. I taught him to treat people right. I taught him hard work. I taught him to believe in himself.”

Since his death, the family has formed the Breakthrough Foundation with the slogan “Doing it for D.J.,” she said: It awarded seven youth scholarships this year and hopes to offer more on June 15, 2018.

“We talk to these kids, because we all live in this world,” she said. “We can’t just keep letting these kids go around and kill each other and beat each other in and out of a gang. We just can’t continue to do that.”

The gang charges

Prosecutors during the trial showed jurors videos police found on Clark’s cell phone. The recordings showed three young men beating up another on command. The prosecution claimed it was a gang ritual in which recruits are “beat in” as an initiation rite.

That evidence was supposed to support charges the three defendants also were Bloods. Jurors saw still photos of them wearing the Bloods’ signature red color and flashing what investigators said were gang signs.

Joining a gang is not illegal, but committing a crime to further a gang’s interest is. The not-guilty verdicts on gang charges indicate jurors found that evidence insufficient.

Attorney Jennifer Curry, who represents Clark, said the prosecution’s claim that three Columbus Bloods killed an Atlanta Blood to further the Bloods’ interest made no sense.

Prosecutors alleged the three suspects killed Dicks to get his money for their gang, though they were all supposed to be in the same gang, Curry said: “The state’s theory was in order to further the purpose of the gang, they’d bring money into the gang. Well, the money already was in the gang, so I really felt that was a leap.”

Law enforcement is using Georgia’s gang law more frequently now, but it doesn’t always fit, she said:

“I feel like the state’s really making a stretch. They’re trying to get a gang charge out of every single case, and the way the code is written, you have to show that the crime was committed in furtherance of the gang.”

This story was originally published October 27, 2017 at 2:25 PM with the headline "Screams, hugs and tears: Families react to verdicts in the Double Churches murder trial."