Homicide victim was out on bond in child murder case

The last time Damian Antwonne Bell was in jail, he’d been arrested a second time for a 2014 murder in which he’d already been charged.

It would be his last trip to the county lockup.

Belle was out on bond on murder and other charges Friday when he and Kelsey Marshall were found dead from multiple gunshot wounds in a room at the Efficiency Lodge, 1776 Boxwood Place. He was 23. She was 21.

He was charged in a March 21, 2014, assault on 23-month-old Ki’ja Bassett, whose mother he was dating at the time. The child, fatally injured in a beating, died at the Egleston children’s hospital in Atlanta three days later, investigators said.

Belle was living with the child’s mother at Lot M-6, 988 Farr Road, where she alleged he assaulted her the previous March 8. He was arrested on a battery charge March 17, and had been out of jail for only a week when the child died.

Investigators said that on March 21, Belle rushed the little girl to Columbus Fire Station No. 4, 200 N. Oakley Drive, because the child had stopped breathing. Firefighters rushed her to a local hospital before she was transferred to Egleston.

He was arrested for murder March 25, 2014, accused of causing the “blunt-force trauma” that led to the girl’s death, but the case languished as it was transferred from one prosecutor who left the district attorney’s office to another, who later also left.

Belle was held without indictment for two years. He had a $50,000 bond for first-degree cruelty to children, but was held without bond on his murder charge.

In February 2016, defense attorney William Kendrick took Belle’s case, and moved to get him released on bond. Superior Court Judge Frank Jordan Jr. set a bond of $100,000 on the murder charge, but Belle did not have the resources to pay.

On Aug. 11 last year, Kendrick moved to get that bond lowered, and after a Sept. 7 hearing, Jordan on Sept. 14 reduced it to $35,000 for murder and $5,000 for child cruelty. Belle finally was able to gain his release.

After the two younger prosecutors who had Belle’s case left for other jobs, Senior Assistant District Attorney Don Kelly finally took it before a grand jury, which indicted him this past Aug. 29.

The grand jury added a new charge: Besides child cruelty, Belle had been arrested for malice or deliberate murder. The grand jury indicted him also for felony murder, alleging he fatally injured the child while committing the felony of first-degree child cruelty.

Judge Jordan then issued a bench warrant for the new charge, and that’s how Belle got arrested again for the same homicide.

On Nov. 27, Officer Jacob Cook stopped Belle’s car at Henry Avenue and Buena Vista Road. The officer smelled marijuana, and found half a gram worth about $5 in the vehicle, along with a loaded Beretta 9mm pistol worth about $500. The gun had been reported stolen, police said.

Belle was booked into the jail on charges of felony murder, felony theft by receiving stolen property, and misdemeanor possession of marijuana.

That same day, Judge Jordan decided Belle was entitled to be released on his own recognizance, as he already had made bond on his earlier charges. He was released Nov. 29.

Asked this week about the Ki’Ja Basset homicide, Kendrick said, “There were some problems with that case.”

Kelly said it was based on the child’s having been in Belle’s care when she fatally was injured, and on the medical records detailing those injuries. Younger prosecutors sometimes find a medical-records case intimidating, he said.

With Belle dead, prosecutors will file a motion dismissing the case, he said.

Now Columbus police have two new homicides to investigate, numbering them the city’s 33rd and 34th murders this year.

Officers were called to the Efficiency Lodge about 6:30 p.m. Friday after an employee found the bodies. Though witnesses heard shots there the day before, no one reported it, police said.

On Monday, homicide investigators appealed to the public for any information on Belle and Marshall’s whereabouts and activities last week. They asked that anyone with such information call Cpl. Katina Williams at 706-225-4434 or email katinawilliams@columbusga.org.

This story was originally published December 12, 2017 at 4:36 PM with the headline "Homicide victim was out on bond in child murder case."