Judge resets sentencing in brutal Upatoi triple homicide

The sentencing of three youths charged in the heinous 2016 bludgeonings of a grandmother, her son and granddaughter in Columbus’ Upatoi area has been postponed until April 6.

Judge Gil McBride reset the court hearing previously scheduled for Friday because he’s presiding over a trial in Marion County this week, attorneys said.

Charged in the Jan. 4, 2016, slayings of Gloria Short, 54; her son Caleb Short, 17; and daughter Gianna Lindsey, 10; were Jervarceay Tapley, Rufus Leonard Burks IV and Raheam Daniel Gibson.

Tapley pleaded guilty Jan. 30 to three counts of malice murder, and a jury Feb. 19 found Burks guilty of felony murder, kidnapping, first-degree burglary and two counts of felony auto theft. Gibson, who agreed to plead guilty and testify during Burks’ trial, has been negotiating with prosecutors to determine which charges he’ll plead to.

At the time of the crime, Burks was 15, Tapley 17 and Gibson 19. Today Burks is 18, Tapley 20 and Gibson 21. Burks and Tapley each could get a life sentence.

The murders’ cold-blooded brutality shocked Columbus. The victims were bound with tape and bashed in the head with a 20-pound dumbbell. Gloria Short and Gianna also were stabbed.

Gibson testified the then-teens traveled about 20 miles from Arbor Pointe on Benning Drive to the Shorts’ home at 3057 Bentley Drive, starting out on a moped and bicycle. Later they leap-frogged on the moped when Tapley’s bicycle broke down near the Georgia driver’s license bureau on Macon Road: Two traveled ahead before one turned back to get the third.

After the murders, they stole the Shorts’ GMC Envoy and a Volkswagen Beetle, abandoning the vehicles in Oakland Park off South Lumpkin Road.

They gained little from the crime, taking only Caleb’s clothes – particularly the Nike sneakers he collected – some cash, coins, video games and a PlayStation game console.

Also shocking was the betrayal Tapley orchestrated: He was the only suspect who knew the Shorts, having spent his summers at their home and having joined them on fishing trips and vacations to Disney World. Gloria Short’s brother Robert Averett was his grandmother’s boyfriend, and Tapley lived with the couple on Calhoun Drive.

Averett died from a heart attack two days after the murders. That same day, Gibson told his sister he was involved in the homicides, and she told their mother, who called the police.

Gibson cooperated with detectives, telling them he accompanied Tapley and Burks to Bentley Drive, but never went inside the Shorts’ home. He said that when they arrived, they went through a gate into the backyard, where Tapley called Caleb Short on his cell phone and had Caleb come to a rear bedroom window, where Tapley told him to come out the front door.

When Caleb came out, Tapley wrestled him down and had Burks help bind him with duct tape. “You’d better be playing,” Gibson said Caleb told his longtime friend.

Tapley and Burks dragged Caleb into the backyard before Tapley came back around and went in the unlocked front door, Gibson said.

As he waited outside, Gibson said he heard no noise from within the house. “I was just standing there confused,” he said.

Eventually Burks called him to the home’s carport, where Gibson saw that Tapley and Burks had loaded the Volkswagen with loot, including boxes of Nike sneakers. He and Burks left in the Beetle as Tapley told them he was going back in the house to find more things to steal.

As Burks drove back toward town, he and Gibson tried to call Tapley on his cell phone and got no answer, Gibson said. They were on Wynnton Road in midtown when Tapley called back and told them to go to Oakland Park, where he was waiting on them with the GMC Envoy.

After they transferred the loot to the Envoy, Tapley collected both sets of keys and told Burks and Gibson to walk to his home as he drove there in the Envoy, Gibson said.

Police later learned Tapley had recruited a fourth teen, Marcus Dermer, for his scheme, but Dermer that night chose to stay with his girlfriend at Arbor Pointe, and did not join them.

Dermer testified that Tapley called him about 1 a.m. to say he had some things for Dermer to pick up. When he awoke the next morning, he found a bag of Caleb’s clothes on his front porch. He and Burks later photographed themselves wearing some of the clothing, and posted the image to Facebook.

Dermer was not charged.

Around 8 a.m. the next morning, nurse Robert Short Sr. came home from working the night shift at Northside Hospital and found his wife, son and granddaughter slain, blood spattered on the walls, and what police called a “debris field” of shattered items extending from the bodies of Gloria Short and Gianna, who lay just feet apart in a central hallway and living room. The dumbbell, one of a pair Caleb had kept in his bedroom, was on the floor beside Gianna.

Caleb’s body was in a walk-in closet off the master bedroom, so brutally beaten that some of his teeth were knocked out.

“They’ve been tied up and beaten!” Robert Short sobbed on his 8:02 a.m. 911 call. “Who would do this to my family? Who would do this?”

He soon learned the answer: Jervarceay Tapley, the boy he long had treated like a nephew, and two other teens Robert Short had never met.

This story was originally published March 22, 2018 at 4:51 PM with the headline "Judge resets sentencing in brutal Upatoi triple homicide."