Witnesses recall brazen shooting that killed Columbus barber

The fatal shooting of Columbus barber Charlie Artis outside his shop off Milgen Road on Jan. 5, 2012, fit a phrase that has become a cliché in crime reports:

It happened in “broad daylight.”

It was around 3 p.m. on a bright, sunny Thursday, in the parking lot of a busy retail complex called Gunboat Plaza. Multiple witnesses heard the gunfire. Several reported seeing a man in a blue, hooded sweatshirt run away.

Some women in a nearby beauty parlor heard a gunshot, looked out the window and saw Artis on the pavement in the parking lot, bleeding. A chemist working in his office close by heard gunshots, too, and dropped to the floor to take cover before he, too, looked out and saw Artis, bleeding profusely.

East of Gunboat Plaza, at Stratford Lane Apartments, witnesses heard the gunfire, too. One saw a man in a blue hoodie come crashing through the woods that separate the apartments from the shopping plaza. Others there saw men in a green car, and thought they were acting suspiciously.

Some of those witnesses are testifying this week in the murder trial of Edward “Little Lee” Lee, 23, and Donteviouse Jarquis Doleman, 24, also known as “Toot” or “Tute.” A third suspect, Demetrice Octavion Scott, also 24, has pleaded guilty to multiple felonies and agreed to testify for the prosecution.

The prosecution alleges Scott set Artis up for the robbery, and Lee carried it out, shooting Artis in the left side of the chest with a .38-caliber revolver before running through the woods to join his cohorts, who waited for him in the green car at the apartments.

Scott was familiar with Artis because Scott’s aunt attended the same barber school, said Assistant District Attorney Wesley Lambertus. Scott knew Artis had no cash register at Charlie’s Barbershop, so the owner regularly kept a wad of bills in his pocket to make change, the prosecutor said.

The 30-year-old barber that afternoon walked outside his shop to his vehicle while talking on his cellphone when Lee rushed up with the revolver, took Artis’ car keys and cash, shot him and ran, Lambertus said.

Immediately afterward, witnesses at the apartments saw the man in blue run through. A former Stratford Lane resident testified Wednesday that he first heard gunfire and then what he thought was a deer crashing through the woods.

Then he saw the guy in blue, tangled in briars, and tried to help him, thinking he was hurt, the witness said. “Somebody’s been shot down there,” the stranger told him, and then kept running, the witness testified.

Other witnesses told police they’d noticed the men in the green car. Some thought Scott was the driver, and Doleman was in the passenger’s seat, Lambertus said.

Defense attorney Jennifer Curry represents Lee, and Doleman’s attorney is Will Kirby.

Kirby blasted the “sweetheart deal” he said Scott got from prosecutors. Scott’s to be sentenced to 30 years in prison, after he testifies, but with the multiple felonies he faced, he could have been sentenced to more than five life sentences, Kirby said.

“It really is making a deal with the devil, an absolute deal with the devil,” said Kirby, who alleged Scott was Artis’ killer.

Authorities have said Artis’ homicide was part of a crime spree that started on Dec. 15, 2011, when Scott and Doleman robbed a woman of her Kia Sport, and ended on Jan. 19, 2012, when Scott, Doleman and Lee stole a woman’s Xbox game system.

The latter incident led to their arrest when police searching for the video game player in a residence where the three men were staying found a Rohm-brand .38-caliber revolver later connected to Artis’ shooting, investigators said.

Here are other offenses authorities allege the suspects carried out:

• A second Dec. 15, 2011, armed robbery in which all three took a woman’s Lexus.
• A Dec. 20, 2011, attempted robbery and shooting at Hometown Grocery, 1159 27th St., where Lee shot at a 47-year-old man leaving the store, damaging a 2008 Honda Odyssey.
• A Dec. 21, 2011, burglary at a 19th Street apartment, where Scott and Doleman took a TV, prescription drugs and the keys to a 2005 Chevrolet Equinox that was stolen six days later.
• A Jan. 6, 2012, break-in at a 14th Street residence where they took $6,000 worth of goods.
• A Jan. 11, 2012, burglary in which the three broke into a home in the 2300 block of 14th Avenue.
• A Jan. 15, 2012, break-in at a 23rd Street home, where at gunpoint Scott raped the woman living there as the three took $1,000 worth of loot along with the woman’s 2006 Chevrolet Aveo.

Besides murder, court records show Lee faces three counts each of aggravated assault and using a firearm to commit a crime, two counts of burglary and one count each of theft and attempted robbery.

Doleman’s charges besides murder are three counts each of armed robbery and burglary, two counts each of aggravated assault and using a firearm to commit a crime and one count each of auto theft and theft by taking, according to his indictment.

Court records show Scott pleaded guilty Feb. 15 to three counts each of aggravated assault, armed robbery and burglary, four counts of using a firearm to commit a felony, and one count each of rape, attempting to commit a felony, felony theft and misdemeanor theft.

This story was originally published May 11, 2016 at 6:02 PM with the headline "Witnesses recall brazen shooting that killed Columbus barber."