Columbus Police make arrest in Double Churches Park homicide
Columbus police made one arrest Friday afternoon and issued two warrants in connection with Wednesday afternoon’s homicide at Double Churches Park.
Jacquawn Clark, 19, was arrested and charged with the murder of Demonde Donya Dicks Jr., a 24-year-old man from Jonesboro, Ga. Authorities have issued arrest warrants for Derain Waller, 25, and Akeveius Powell, 21, said police Maj. Gil Slouchick.
“We believe that robbery was the motive,” Slouchick said.
Clark is scheduled to appear in Columbus Recorder’s Court at 8 a.m. Monday.
Dicks was gunned down near the basketball courts at Double Churches Park. Police said they were called to the 2300 Double Churches Road park around 3 p.m. to check on shots fired. When they arrived, they found Dicks near the basketball courts, dead from a gunshot wound to the head.
The shooting occurred behind the park’s swimming pool, authorities said.
Dicks’ death came two days before he was scheduled to appear in Muscogee County Superior Court on drug charges.
Demonde Donya Dicks Jr. and three co-defendants who included his father, Demonde Donya Dicks Sr., were set for a 9 a.m. guilty plea Friday before Judge Frank Jordan Jr.
“We cannot find any correlation at this time,” Slouchick said when asked whether the drug charges were related to Dicks’ death.
The son’s attorney, Stacey Jackson, said on Thursday that he had expected the son to be cleared of the charges against him.
At the request of attorney Mike Garner, who represents the father, Jordan delayed the hearing. Attorneys representing the father’s codefendants also sought the delay. Jordan rescheduled the hearing for Aug. 2.
Court records show two of the suspects in the homicide have criminal records.
The only Superior Court file on Clark showed an April 26, 2015, misdemeanor simple battery case involving family violence, and it was dismissed. Clark had been accused of punching his child’s mother three times in the face.
Powell’s file showed he was arrested June 6, 2014, for violating the Georgia Controlled Substances Act by having Oxycodone, Clonazapam and Tramadol. He was sentenced this past April 18 to three years’ probation.
Besides some 2013 traffic offenses, Waller was charged May 9, 2012, with aggravated battery and first-degree child cruelty for subjecting a 3-month-old to abusive head trauma that resulted in an irreversible brain injury, according to court documents.
Authorities said the baby was airlifted to the Egleston hospital at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, where doctors diagnosed the injury. Waller pleaded guilty Oct. 13, 2015, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison with 875 days to serve and the rest on probation. He may have been released after getting credit for the time he’d already served.
Dick’s death is the 11th homicide in Columbus this year, Muscogee County Coroner Buddy Bryan said. It came less than a week after the June 9 shooting of Jamyah Allen at 6023 Crystal Drive. An autopsy showed the boy, 15, died of a gunshot to the chest. His death remains under investigation by police.
Staff writers Tim Chitwood and Sarah Robinson contributed to this report.
This story was originally published June 17, 2016 at 2:42 PM with the headline "Columbus Police make arrest in Double Churches Park homicide."