Jury reaches verdict in Oakland Park murder trial

The jury has reached a verdict in the murder trial of Gary Lee Jones Jr., charged in Robert Earl Bolden’s Nov. 5, 2014 fatal shooting on Riverland Avenue in Columbus’ Oakland Park community.

Jones was found not guilty on all charges, which included malice or deliberate murder, felony murder for allegedly killing Bolden while committing the felony of armed robbery, armed robbery and using a gun to commit a crime.

Jurors deliberated about three hours before announcing they had a verdict at 1:15 p.m.

Jones was accused of killing Bolden during a botched robbery involving a marijuana deal. Senior Assistant District Attorney Don Kelly told jurors Jones had not expected Bolden to come armed with a pistol.

“This is an armed robbery that went south because Mr. Bolden resisted,” Kelly said in his closing argument.

Jones testified his cousin Adrian Devon Patterson shot Bolden during a struggle, after meeting him to buy marijuana. Jones said he was there only because he’d caught a ride with Patterson from Cusseta, Ga., planning to go on a family outing here with his then-girlfriend and her sister.

Both Jones and Patterson are from Cusseta. At the Botany Arms apartments on Farr Road in Columbus, they met Antonio Benefield, who agreed to drive Patterson’s white Geo Prism to Oakland Park to meet Bolden, as the two cousins were unfamiliar with the area.

Bolden caught a ride there with Frank Smith, his godbrother, who was driving a blue Honda CRV. Smith said he parked at the Riverwind Apartments on Riverland Avenue, where Bolden got out to talk to a man in a gray hooded sweatshirt.

Smith said he was sitting in the driver’s seat when he heard the stranger say, “Give me all you got!” The two men struggled and a gun went off, followed by two more shots, before Bolden ran up Hawthorne Drive and the man in the hoodie ran toward Ramsey Road, Smith testified.

Nearby residents saw fleeing suspects jumping fences as they ran through yards. Witnesses described one as heavyset and the other thin and fit.

They were running to catch up with Benefield, who had driven off in the Prism as Smith followed it in the Honda.

A security camera on one Ramsey Road home recorded the passing vehicles, followed by Patterson running after the Prism. Kelly told jurors Jones, who was in better shape, got to the Prism first while Patterson, who was overweight with a knee injury, lagged behind.

Smith soon broke off the pursuit to go look for Bolden, whom he found lying in the street on Hawthorne Drive. Bolden was found with a .380 semi-automatic handgun investigators believe he never fired, because no bullet was in the chamber.

Bolden died later at the hospital, on his 44th birthday. The fatal shot sent a bullet right-to-left through the middle of his torso, police said.

Investigators found a .32-caliber bullet lodged in the Honda’s sun roof, but police never located that weapon.

Defense attorney Michael Eddings told jurors Patterson was the one wearing a gray hoodie that day, as evidenced by witnesses’ descriptions and the security video that recorded him running by.

Jones testified that he watched from down the street as Patterson met a man in a blue Honda before a struggle ensued, followed by gunfire.

Another cousin, Keith Jones Jr., testified he saw Patterson with a silver revolver that day in Cusseta.

Patterson also is charged in Bolden’s homicide, but his case has been severed, so he will be tried separately.

This story was originally published December 1, 2017 at 1:37 PM with the headline "Jury reaches verdict in Oakland Park murder trial."