Victim’s family angry after suspect gets bond in slaying of girl at Wilson Homes

Lekeshia Moses’ family angrily walked out of Judge Frank Jordan’s courtroom Friday after the man accused of killing the 16-year-old last year at Columbus’ Wilson Homes apartments was granted a bond on his murder charge.

Relatives said suspect Lernard “Baby” Bonner once dated the girl nicknamed “Lady Bug” and “Little Mama,” but that had ended, and they suspect that’s what led to her fatal shooting about 9:30 a.m. July 1, 2016, in Apt. D of Building 107 at 3400 Eighth Ave.

Witnesses told police Bonner, then 17, shot Moses in the face in a bedroom, after which he hugged one of the people there and said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do it.”

At least three adults and three children were in the apartment at the time, police said.

Moses was taken to the Midtown Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 10:57 a.m. that Friday after going into cardiac arrest. Bonner surrendered to police about 3:30 p.m. the next day.

He had since been held in the Muscogee County Jail without bond and without indictment. Under Georgia law, suspects who have not been indicted within 90 days are entitled to a bond.

Defense attorney Nancy Miller asked Jordan to set Bonner’s bond at $25,000. Senior Assistant District Attorney Don Kelly asked for $100,000, and Judge Jordan granted his request.

Moses’ family was upset that Bonner could be released from jail before he goes to trial. They pointed out that three men charged in a June 15, 2016, murder at Columbus’ Double Churches Road Park already have been tried and convicted, though that case preceded Moses’ homicide.

Kelly said he expects Bonner to be indicted within 30 days. The prosecutor said he’d been waiting for a ballistics report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime laboratory, which is backed up with requests for such evidence. He will take the case to a grand jury without that evidence, if necessary, he said.

This story was originally published November 3, 2017 at 3:30 PM with the headline "Victim’s family angry after suspect gets bond in slaying of girl at Wilson Homes."