Killer claims he shot man in downtown Columbus to protect cousins

A fistfight. A shootout. A homicide. A confusing set of circumstances attorneys still are trying to sort out.

For two days they’ve questioned witnesses to the Dec. 22, 2013, fatal shooting of 26-year-old Arthur Holt Jr., as the man who admits killing Holt seeks immunity from prosecution, claiming he acted in defense of companions he thought Holt was about to shoot.

Georgia’s self-defense law allows a resident to use deadly force “if he or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent death or great bodily injury to himself or herself or a third person or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.”

Defense attorneys representing Marquis Tirese Shaw argue he acted within the bounds of the law when he saw Holt aiming a gun at his friends during a fight atop the rear parking deck of Columbus’ Hardaway Building, 945 Broadway.

Shaw took the witness stand Tuesday in Judge William Rumer’s court to explain his actions.

He said he and his friends walked to the parking deck after getting kicked out of Mario’s Restaurant & Pub, 1010 Broadway. When they reached the deck, Shaw’s cousin Marchello Tripp exchanged words with Darrell Boggans, a friend of Holt’s, and Tripp and Boggans started fighting.

It was during this 3 a.m. fistfight that another friend of Holt’s named Brandon Fortson pulled out a .45-caliber pistol. Shaw saw the gun, came up behind Fortson and used his 9 mm pistol to hit Fortson over the head, hoping to knock him out.

Fortson staggered, turned and started shooting at Shaw, who ducked behind parked cars and dodged away.

When Fortson started shooting, another cousin of Shaw’s, Deondra Richardson, shouted “I’m hit!” and fell against Tripp, pulling him to the pavement. Testifying Monday, Richardson said he was not wounded, but played dead in the hope he and Tripp would not be injured.

Shaw said he heard Richardson say he was hit, and then saw Holt on the ground with a pistol aimed at his cousins. He fired two shots at Holt and fled, he said.

Holt later died from the wounds inflicted by Shaw’s 9 mm, but he also had a .40-caliber bullet in his chest, a detective testified Tuesday. Police don’t know where that shot came from, the investigator said, as the only gun recovered was Fortson’s.

Shaw told the court he later threw his pistol into a creek off Dillingham Street in Phenix City, where his grandmother lives.

He later lied to police about what happened. “It’s hard for me to tell my family that I killed someone,” he testified. At the time he did not consider whether his shooting Holt was justified, he said: “The law wasn’t even on my mind.”

He and Holt did not know each other and had no previous conflict, he said.

He is represented by Mark Shelnutt and William Kendrick, who are trying to persuade Rumer to grant their client immunity to avoid taking the case to trial. Shaw is charged with murder and aggravated assault.

This story was originally published February 21, 2017 at 5:02 PM with the headline "Killer claims he shot man in downtown Columbus to protect cousins."