Defense attorneys plan to appeal guilty verdicts in Peachtree Mall murder

Defense attorneys are planning appeals after three alleged gangsters twice were found guilty Wednesday in last year’s fatal shooting at Peachtree Mall, but the first verdict was rejected when one juror said her vote on two of the defendants was not voluntary.

That was around 10:30 a.m. as Judge Frank Jordan Jr. polled each juror individually at the request of defense attorneys. A woman stood and said she agreed with finding Xzavaien Trevon Jones guilty on all counts, but not his sister Tekoa Chantrell Young or codefendant Terell Raquez McFarland.

She said she felt the evidence was insufficient to find them guilty.

After all three were found guilty again in a second verdict, Young’s attorney Mark Shelnutt said an appeal likely will be filed after the three are sentenced.

“There obviously are some issues we’ll look at for an appeal,” he said.

After the first verdict was rejected, defense attorneys moved for a mistrial. Chief Assistant District Attorney Al Whitaker asked Jordan either to accept the partial verdict of Jones’ guilt or give the jury what’s called an “Allen charge” urging them to reach a unanimous verdict after further deliberation.

Jordan chose to give the Allen charge. The jury that had deliberated 10 hours took a lunch break before returning at 1:30 p.m. At 2 p.m., jurors asked to review mall surveillance video showing the three suspects meeting in the parking lot before walking to where Jones shot Anthony Meredith 10 times outside the food court entrance, then running back to their cars and driving away.

Jurors returned to the jury room at 2:18 p.m., and the second verdict came back around 3:30 p.m. When Jordan individually polled jurors again, each agreed with the verdict.

Jones, 19, was found guilty on all counts — malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, gang violence and using a firearm to commit a crime.

Young, 24, and McFarland, 26, were found guilty of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and gang violence.

Courtroom security was heavy as the verdict was announced, with about 25 deputies in uniform or plain clothes present. Jordan set sentencing for 1 p.m. May 23.

In moving for a mistrial after the first verdict, defense attorneys for Young and McFarland argued the judge’s charge to the jury to reach a unanimous verdict placed undue pressure on the lone holdout, and failed to inform jurors they needn’t surrender an honest conclusion just to agree with others.

After the second verdict, Jones’ attorney Tim Flournoy objected that the jury was not legally constituted, arguing Jordan last week should not have removed the foreperson after four other jurors complained she was refusing to deliberate. Young’s attorneys Shelnutt and William Kendrick joined in Flournoy’s objection, as did McFarland’s attorney Nancy Miller.

Shelnutt said that the judge should not have replaced the foreperson, and that he improperly issued the Allen charge.

Kendrick earlier in the trial objected to replacing the foreperson partly on the basis of race. The woman was black, as are the defendants. The four jurors who complained about the foreperson’s conduct were all white women. The juror who said her first verdict was not freely given also was black.

Prosecutors noted the victim was black, and argued race should not be a factor. The jury had six white women, four black women and four black men.

Assistant District Attorney Pete Temesgen said after the verdict that he felt Jordan acted within his discretion when he replaced the foreperson.

The jurors obviously did not take their duty “lightly,” he said: “We certainly appreciate their service, and they did the right thing, and justice has been served in this case.”

Trying times

The trial was plagued by disputes and delays. Defense attorneys argued for a mistrial Friday when the jury deadlocked before Jordan replaced the foreperson with an alternate.

Each trial jury typically has two or three alternates to replace jurors who are unable to continue serving because of illness or some other cause. The alternates hear all the evidence during the trial, but do not join in deliberations if they’re not needed.

Because the deliberations had begun when Jordan replaced the foreperson, he again had to instruct jurors on the law by which they were to weigh the evidence, and the deliberations had to start all over again with the replacement juror.

The new jury began deliberating about 10:45 a.m. Monday after twice stopping to take cover during tornado warnings. On Tuesday the court adjourned early after a juror fell and injured her ankle during a lunch break.

Using a cane, the injured juror was able to return to court at 9 a.m. Wednesday. Attorneys said she was the same juror who told the court her verdicts were not voluntary.

Authorities alleged the three defendants were associated with the Crips street gang, and they gunned down Meredith, 24, to avenge the Nov. 21, 2015, death of Young’s boyfriend Christopher Twitty, who also was a Crip.

Jones shot Meredith around 7:30 p.m. on March 26, 2016, the Saturday before Easter. Meredith died at the hospital about 30 minutes later.

Investigators said Meredith and Twitty had a dispute over Meredith’s fronting Twitty about $3,000 worth of marijuana, for which Twitty never paid.

Whitaker said that August 2015 conflict sparked a cycle of violence. Someone shot up Twitty’s home, then Meredith was shot in the cheek the following Oct. 29, and spent three weeks in the hospital. Twitty was killed in a home invasion three days after Meredith was released, the prosecutor said.

Witnesses testified that Young, McFarland, Meredith and Twitty all knew each other from Hardaway High School, where Meredith, Twitty and McFarland played football. Meredith’s girlfriend Shanna Douglas testified that Young got to be her “best friend” at Hardaway. Though Young’s brother Jones was too young for high school then, Douglas said she got to know him while hanging out with Young.

This story was originally published May 3, 2017 at 5:24 PM with the headline "Defense attorneys plan to appeal guilty verdicts in Peachtree Mall murder."