Detective: Triple-homicide suspect Upatoi family trusted pretended to grieve after slayings

Prosecutors tied up loose ends Thursday in their triple-homicide case against Rufus Leonard Burks IV, charged in the Jan. 4, 2016, brutal slayings of a grandmother, her son and granddaughter.

They expect to finish presenting evidence in the murder trial Monday after a medical examiner testifies about the autopsies of Gloria Short, 54; her son Caleb Short, 17; and granddaughter Gianna Lindsey, 10.

Evidence this week showed the victims were bound with tape and bludgeoned over the head with a 20-pound dumbbell, their bodies left in pools of blood. Caleb Short was so violently beaten some of his teeth were knocked out, police found.

No witnesses will take the stand Friday, when jurors will not be in court. Instead attorneys will hold a “charge conference” to agree on how Judge Gil McBride will instruct jurors on the law and how they should weigh the evidence.

Burks’ attorney Jennifer Curry also intends to argue against showing jurors autopsy photos, which she believes are so graphic they will prejudice the jury against her client.

Burks is the only defendant to go to trial. Another suspect, Jervarceay Tapley, pleaded guilty to three counts of murder last week. A third, Raheam Gibson, has agreed to plead guilty after prosecutors finish presenting evidence. He testified for the prosecution.

On Thursday, prosecutors focused on evidence establishing the route the three suspects took from south Columbus to the Shorts’ 3057 Bentley Drive home in Upatoi, and proving Burks and Tapley later had items stolen from the residence.

The loot included Caleb Short’s PlayStation 4 game console and six games, plus clothing that included the Nike Air Jordan sneakers he collected. A photograph showing Burks and a friend wearing some of the clothes later was posted to Facebook.

Ashley Hinkle, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation forensic biologist, testified lab tests determined a pair of camouflage pants police found at Tapley’s Calhoun Drive home had a partial DNA match to Caleb. Another GBI witness said a black knit glove police found on McKee Road, the street that leads from Macon Road to Bentley Drive, bore Burks’ DNA.

Witness Jonah Bell, who’s acquainted with Burks, testified that on Jan. 4, 2016, he and Burks exchanged PlayStation 4 video games, and Burks gave him a National Basketball Association game. Robert Short Sr., Caleb’s father, still had a receipt proving he had purchased that game for his son.

Police Sgt. Alan Malone gave testimony outlining how investigators used surveillance video from various locations to corroborate Gibson’s telling officers the three teens traveled about 20 miles to Upatoi from Arbor Pointe off Benning Drive with two riding a moped and a third on a bicycle.

Security cameras recorded them passing Greenbriar Apartments at 760 Illges Road, heading north. Another camera captured them passing Columbus’ City Service Center off Macon Road at 3111 Citizens Way, and a third showed them going east on Macon Road as they passed a Chevron station at 3711 Macon Road, near University Avenue.

Later that night, they left the Shorts’ home in stolen vehicles they’d loaded with loot. Burks and Gibson took the family’s Volkswagen Beetle, and Tapley took a GMC Envoy. Both were found abandoned in Columbus’ Oakland Park neighborhood off South Lumpkin Road.

Malone also told jurors Thursday about detectives’ retrieving incriminating Facebook messages that Burks and Tapley exchanged after the homicides. Burks asked Tapley to call him, to which Tapley replied, “Can’t. With the family.”

“Look on the news,” Burks wrote back, apparently in reference to news coverage of the slayings.

“I did,” Tapley replied, telling Burks, “No snitching. No telling what we did.”

Tapley’s family had an intimate connection to the Shorts, as he lived with his grandmother and her boyfriend, Robert Averett, who was Gloria Short’s brother. Averett died of a heart attack Jan. 6. 2016, after hearing about the homicides.

Robert Short has testified his family treated Tapley like a cousin. Tapley spent summers with the Shorts and sometimes accompanied them on vacation. Witnesses testified it was Tapley, then 16, who hatched the plan to steal Caleb’s valuables.

Under Curry’s cross-examination, Malone acknowledged that after the homicides made headlines, Tapley pretended to grieve for his slain friend.

Tapley was arrested Jan. 12, 2016, the same day police took Gibson, then 19, into custody. Burks, then only 15, was arrested the following Feb. 3.

Today Tapley is 19; Gibson is 21; and Burks is 17.

Burks is being tried on 10 counts: 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.

This story was originally published February 8, 2018 at 5:20 PM with the headline "Detective: Triple-homicide suspect Upatoi family trusted pretended to grieve after slayings."