Man pleads in cab driver’s fatal 2016 shooting during Farr Road robbery
One of two men accused of fatally shooting a Columbus cab driver during a 2016 armed robbery has pleaded guilty to reduced charges.
Dontavis Paige Screws, 22, was facing charges of malice or deliberate murder, of felony murder for killing Warrior Cab Company driver Dewayne Chronister while committing the felony of armed robbery, of armed robbery and of using a firearm to commit a crime.
In a negotiated deal between defense attorney Robin King and prosecutor March Konan, Screws pleaded guilty Thursday to voluntary manslaughter instead of felony murder and to robbery instead of armed robbery.
Judge Gil McBride sentenced him to serve 20 years in prison.
“He has expressed sorrow for the loss of life in this matter,” King told the judge. Screws made no statement.
Screws grew up in Eufaula, Ala., and has a child living with his mother in Omaha, Ga.
Charges still are pending against his codefendant in the case, Devin Trashawn Durden, 23.
Authorities said Chronister, 50, was killed Oct. 17, 2016, after he dropped Screws and Durden off on Farr Road, having picked the two up early that morning at the Mystic Food Mart, 701 Brown Ave.
That’s where Screws and Durden approached Chronister’s van and told him they wanted to go to the Parkwood Mobile Home Park at 527 Farr Road.
Chronister reported that destination to his cab company dispatcher before driving to the trailer park where his customers directed him to a dark, secluded cul-de-sac in the rear, police said. That was directly in front of a place where Screws used to live, a detective said.
There Screws and Durden got out and approached the driver’s side of the van before Durden shot the driver, police said.
It was between 4 and 5:30 a.m. The suspects took Chronister’s cellphone and wallet and fled to Screws’ home at 2315 Forsyth St., investigators said.
Chronister was pronounced dead of a gunshot wound to the head at 11:05 a.m., said Muscogee County Coroner Buddy Bryan.
A police SWAT team captured Screws two days at his home. He gave a detailed account of the robbery and admitted plotting to rob Chronister, detectives said.