Attorney: Second triple-homicide suspect didn’t want to put victims’ family through trial

The Upatoi triple-homicide suspect police accused of instigating the robbery scheme that led to the brutal killings of a grandmother, son and granddaughter has pleaded guilty.

About 1 p.m. Tuesday, Jervarceay Tapley pleaded guilty to three counts of malice or intentional murder in the Jan. 4, 2016, slayings of Gloria Short, 54; her son Caleb Short, 17; and granddaughter Gianna Lindsey, 10.

Tapley was to plead guilty Monday morning, but abruptly withdrew his plea when Judge Gil McBride asked him if he in fact was one of the three people who committed the homicides.

He is the second suspect who has agreed to plead. Raheam Daniel Gibson’s attorney announced Monday that Gibson would plead guilty in a negotiated agreement with prosecutors, the terms of which were not disclosed. He is expected to testify in the trial of the remaining defendant, Rufus Leonard Burks IV.

Unlike Gibson, Tapley entered what’s called a “cold plea,” with no promise of what his sentence might be. He has not been asked to testify, said his attorney Shevon Sutcliffe Thomas.

Both Tapley and Gibson are to be sentenced once Burks’ trial is over. Attorneys were still picking a jury Tuesday.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Al Whitaker, who’s leading the prosecution, gave this account of the homicides:

He said Tapley was acquainted with the Shorts because Gloria Short’s brother was his grandmother’s boyfriend, and he lived with the couple. The Shorts treated him like a cousin, Whitaker said.

On Jan. 3, 2016, Tapley talked to the other suspects about wanting to “make a lick,” meaning to commit a robbery. The three that night used a bicycle and moped or motorized bike to travel from south Columbus to the Shorts’ 3057 Bentley Drive home off McKee Road in Upatoi.

Police later tracked their movements through cell phone records, Whitaker said. Those communications ceased for about about 75 minutes after the suspects reached Bentley Drive, he said.

At 8 a.m. the next day, the first Monday in January 2016, Gloria Short’s husband Robert Short Sr., a nurse, came home from working the night shift at a local hospital and found the three bodies. Authorities said autopsies showed each victim had “extreme blunt-force trauma to the head,” and Gloria Short and Gianna also had “multiple stab wounds.”

Two days later, on Jan. 6, 2016, Gibson’s mother called police to report her daughter had told her Gibson was involved in the case. Gibson later implicated the other two suspects, and divulged other details, police said.

Among the loot taken from the Shorts’ home were some of Caleb’s clothes, including an Adidas jacket, camouflage pants, polo shirts, and several pairs of Nike sneakers, plus video games and $600 in coins stashed in a box made for storing wine, police said.

Whitaker said photos of people wearing Caleb’s stolen clothes appeared on Facebook soon afterward. A fourth individual had been in on the planning, but got sidetracked the day of the homicides, Whitaker said. That witness later got some of Caleb’s clothes, the prosecutor said.

Also missing from the Shorts’ home were two vehicles, a green 2004 GMC Envoy and silver 2014 Volkswagen Beetle. Both were found abandoned in the Oakland Park neighborhood off South Lumpkin Road.

On Tuesday, Thomas told reporters his client did not want to put the Short’s relatives through the ordeal of a trial. About a dozen family members have been in the courtroom during jury selection.

“He’s a young kid, and this is all around a bad situation,” Thomas said of Tapley, who was 16 when the homicides happened. “He was afforded the opportunity to make a decision on his own, with all relevant information and evidence to him, and he made a decision, and that’s it.”

The Shorts’ family was a prominent consideration, Thomas said: “He did not want to put the family through a trial. That was his expressed words.”

On Monday, Thomas told McBride that Tapley wanted to enter a guilty plea while acknowledging the evidence against him was sufficient for a conviction, but taking no responsibility for the homicides. McBride said he would not be inclined to accept that.

After Tapley still agreed to plea that morning, McBride asked whether he was being “coerced” to do so, and he said he was. Thomas tried to clarify that, telling McBride his client meant he felt compelled to plea by the strength of the evidence against him and by media coverage of the case.

When asked the same question again, Tapley said he was not being forced to plead guilty.

Then the judge asked whether Tapley was, in fact, one of the three people who committed the killings, and seconds ticked by as Tapley at first shook his head and stood silent.

Then he said he wanted to go to trial, though Senior Assistant District Attorney Al Whitaker warned that he would not be tried just on three counts of malice murder, but on each of the 10 counts in his indictment.

The defendants’ July 26, 2016, indictment charges them with 10 counts each: three counts of malice or intentional murder; three counts of felony murder for allegedly killing the three victims while committing the felony of aggravated assault; two counts of auto theft; and one count each of kidnapping and first-degree burglary.

The burglary charge accuses the suspects of entering the Shorts’ home with the intent to commit theft. The kidnapping count lists Caleb as the only victim, alleging the three suspects “did unlawfully steal away Caleb Short without lawful authority or warrant and held such person against his will, said act resulting in bodily injury.”

At the time of the homicides, Gibson was 19 years old, and Burks was 15. Today Gibson is 21; Burks is 17; and Tapley is 19.

Each defendant could face life in prison.

This story was originally published January 30, 2018 at 2:23 PM with the headline "Attorney: Second triple-homicide suspect didn’t want to put victims’ family through trial."