Twin officers trading tag number make mistake, crack Oakland Park murder case

Twin police officers trading information over the phone cracked Robert Earl Bolden’s homicide case by mistake, one testified Wednesday in the murder trial of Gary Lee Jones Jr.

Police Sgt. Jeff Bridges said investigators were trying to track down a white Geo Prism witnesses reported seeing Nov. 5, 2014, at Riverwind Apartments in Columbus’ Oakland Park area, where Bolden fatally was shot shortly after noon.

Thanks to John Crimmel, who heard three gunshots, followed the car he saw leaving the scene and called 911, detectives had a tag number, but it was traced to a car that didn’t fit the model witnesses saw. It fit a red vehicle in a distant county where authorities that same day found the car still was there, so it could not have traveled from Columbus so quickly.

Officers started running various portions of the tag number Crimmel gave them to see what came back, and still no Geo Prism popped up, Bridges said.

One day Bridges called his twin brother Joe, a patrol officer, and told him the tag number. But he got it wrong: He accidentally added a number to the end.

His brother soon called back. He ran the digits through the state database with his patrol car computer, and got a match: A white Geo Prism registered in Buena Vista, in Marion County, Ga.

By getting the number wrong, the twins got it right: The car belonged to Adrian Devon Patterson, a second suspect now charged in Bolden’s slaying. Questioning Patterson led them to Antonio Benefield, the Columbus man who was driving Patterson’s car that day, and then to Gary Jones, whom Benefield identified as the gunman who shot Bolden during a drug deal.

Jeff Bridges, the lead investigator in the homicide probe, spent hours on the witness stand Wednesday as attorneys grilled him about the details. He was the prosecution’s last witness.

Jury sees videos

Before Bridges took the stand, police Sgt. David Lyon testified to retrieving video from an Oakland Park resident’s security camera. The camera facing Ramsey Road recorded a white Prism passing by, followed by a blue Honda CRV, and seconds later a man running down the street.

Lyon and Bridges testified that was Patterson, running to catch up with the Prism. The driver in the blue Honda was Frank Smith, who had given Bolden a ride to Oakland Park, and was following the fleeing Prism after the shooting.

The time stamp on the video said it was recorded between 12:19 and 12:20 p.m.

After police found the Prism and its owner, they brought Benefield in for questioning. Jurors watched a video of the interview in which Benefield for 30 minutes denied knowing anything about Bolden’s death.

“I go to church every Sunday. I don’t get in no trouble, sir,” he told Bridges and Lt. Greg Touchberry, later adding, “I don’t know nothing about anyone being killed, sir.”

The investigators informed him that other witnesses had identified him as one of the three people involved, and he could be charged as a party to the crime. Benefield then wanted to talk to his mother, who had driven him to police headquarters.

Twenty minutes later, Benefield was ready to talk.

He told police he had driven Patterson’s white Prism to Riverland Avenue, near Oakland Park’s Riverwind Apartments, where Jones and Patterson were to meet someone to buy marijuana. He said Jones, who had been on a cell phone getting directions, got out there and walked toward the apartments, while Patterson got out and stayed nearby.

He heard gunshots, and then Jones came back and told him Bolden had seen a gun Jones had with him, and had pulled his own pistol, prompting Jones to shoot.

Benefield said he and Patterson were angry: “We’re both cussing Gary out.”

When shown two photo lineups during his police interview, Benefield picked Patterson’s picture from one and wrote “car owner” on the document. Shown the second lineup, he picked Jones’ picture and wrote “shooter.”

Police then got a warrant for Jones’ arrest, charging him with murder.

Defense responds

Defense attorney Michael Eddings questioned Bridges about Benefield’s repeatedly lying to police, accusing detectives of pinning the case on Jones even though some witnesses described the suspect they saw that day as a heavyset man in a gray hooded sweatshirt. That description fits Patterson, not Jones, who is slim, and who was wearing a bright blue Carolina Panthers knit cap, Eddings noted.

Smith, who was in the driver’s seat when Bolden was shot standing just outside the Honda, earlier testified the shooter was wearing a gray hoodie.

Eddings pointed out also that Patterson, not Jones, was the man recorded running away on the Ramsey Road resident’s security camera, and he was wearing a gray hoodie.

Also police found no marijuana at the crime scene or in Bolden’s clothing, so they had no evidence to prove Jones shot Bolden to rob him of the drug, Eddings said.

With the jury out of the courtroom, Eddings asked Judge Frank Jordan Jr. for a directed verdict of acquittal, arguing the evidence was insufficient to justify continuing the trial. Jordan refused.

Eddings called one defense witness Wednesday: Keith Jones Jr., who like Gary Jones and Patterson is from Cusseta, Ga. He testified both suspects are his cousins.

On the day of the homicide, Patterson asked him about buying marijuana, and he referred him to Benefield, Keith Jones said. When Patterson left for Columbus around 11 a.m., Gary Jones was not with him, he said.

He testified also that a cell phone number police found on Bolden’s phone used to be his, but he had sold the prepaid phone to Patterson for $20. When asked why he at one point owned two phones, he said he was cheating on a girlfriend, and didn’t want her to find out.

Around 4 p.m. Wednesday, Gary Jones told Jordan that he will testify in his own defense, but Eddings first wanted to question Jeff Bridges again, and the detective had left the courtroom and needed 30 minutes to get back. Jordan adjourned for the day.

Patterson is not on trial with Jones because his case was severed, so he will be tried separately.

Jones is charged with malice or deliberate murder, felony murder for allegedly killing Bolden while committing the felony of aggravated assault, aggravated assault, and using a gun to commit a crime.

Patterson is charged with malice murder, felony murder and aggravated assault.

Jones’ trial resumes Wednesday in Jordan’s Government Center courtroom.

This story was originally published November 29, 2017 at 5:42 PM with the headline "Twin officers trading tag number make mistake, crack Oakland Park murder case."