Man pleads in murder case involving Antonio King, once linked to five local homicides

Prosecutors in Russell County are about to take another shot at an alleged career criminal who over the years has been implicated in five area homicides, but never convicted of murder.

The latest murder case against Antonio D. King took a step forward Thursday when a codefendant pleaded guilty in the Feb. 24, 2014, fatal shooting of King’s 19-year-old nephew, Sayquwan Wiggins.

Santago Montrell Davis, 31, Wiggins’ uncle by marriage, pleaded guilty Thursday to murder, and will be sentenced after he testifies in King’s murder trial, said Russell County District Attorney Ken Davis.

King and another codefendant, Ryan DeSean Brown, 26, are facing the death penalty in Wiggins’ homicide. No trial date has been set, as Circuit Judge Michael Bellamy has recused himself from the case, having once represented King before becoming a judge. The Alabama Administrative Office of Courts will have to assign a new judge to King’s case.

Wiggins was gunned down with an assault rifle in the New Hope Baptist Church cemetery off Alabama Highway 165 in Cottonton. Investigators believe that King arranged Wiggins’ killing, and that it was drug-related.

“The evidence we were able to obtain from friends and family is going to be such that Mr. Wiggins was involved with Mr. King, and it’s because of that involvement and the history between those two that Mr. King wanted Mr. Wiggins dead,” Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor said during a Feb. 24, 2014 news conference on Wiggins’ homicide.

Wiggins had been traveling between Russell County and Atlanta since August 2013, when King began threatening Wiggins and his family, Taylor said, adding, “Those threats were documented and reported.”

The federal case

Authorities investigating Wiggins’ death in 2014 were searching King’s Phenix City home when they found more than five grams of cocaine, about $3,000 cash and a gun.

That evidence led to federal charges. On March 16, 2016, King was convicted of felony firearm possession, possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug activity, and possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute it.

On Aug. 11, 2016, U.S. District Judge James Whittemore sentenced King to 25 years in federal prison.

When King was arrested in Wiggins’ death, he was wearing an ankle monitor while out on bond in another homicide – the Feb. 6, 2011, death of Timothy Turman, shot repeatedly at 1102 Dillingham St. in Phenix City, where investigators reported finding drugs in the home and on the victim.

The district attorney was compelled to dismiss that case when the lead investigator, police Sgt. Daniel Davis, died Nov. 10, 2014, in what authorities determined was an accidental shooting.

Davis, 30, was found around 10 p.m. with a gunshot wound in the parking lot of Carriage Hill Apartments on Summerville Road. He was in his unmarked police car. An autopsy later determined he bled to death from a gunshot wound to his leg.

Besides Wiggins and Turman, King has been implicated in three other homicides.

The other cases

In 1994, King was arrested and charged with the 1992 death of Al Jacobs, with whom he argued over a $10 debt, according to Ledger-Enquirer archives. The Russell County jury in that trial deadlocked, and King later pleaded guilty to first-degree attempted assault and possession of cocaine. In 1996, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

In 2003, he faced charges in two Columbus cases: the Aug. 18, 2000 death of Norman Long, shot multiple times with a 9 mm pistol outside 507-E Booker T. Washington Apartments, a public housing complex off Veterans Parkway that later was demolished; and the 2001 death of Shareef Lewis, 23, shot four times with a .357 revolver.

King was tried in Long’s death, but the jury deadlocked March 31, 2003, causing a mistrial. In a plea deal on May 14, 2004 that resolved both the Long and Lewis cases, he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, concealing a death, and two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

He was sentenced the following March 19 to 15 years in prison with eight to serve and the rest on probation, and he got credit for the time he was in jail awaiting trial, dating back to March 14, 2001, according to court records.

On Dec. 13, 2008, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles commuted King’s sentence to the time he already served, and he was released.

The police chase

Between his homicide cases, King had another run-in with the law over a traffic stop.

On Oct. 2, 2000, a Columbus police tactical unit was patrolling the area of Cusseta Road and Brown Avenue when they pulled King over for driving with a paper tag displaying no date. Officers smelled liquor and saw paper cups and a bottle of Seagram’s gin in the car.

An officer told King’s passenger to get out of the car, then reached in for the alcohol. That’s when King shouted, “Y’all don’t be in my car!” and drove off, the open car door knocking an officer to the ground as two others jumped out of the way, police said.

He raced down Cusseta Road to Elizabeth Canty Homes, running stop signs and spurring pedestrians to jump out of his way, then turned onto 19th Avenue where he threw a Glock 9mm pistol out of his car window, officers reported. He later cut back to Cusseta Road and stopped on 15th Avenue, where he refused to leave the car and had to be forced out, police said.

He was charged with driving under the influence, obstructing police, fleeing and eluding police, being a felon with a firearm, carrying a concealed weapon, reckless driving, having no insurance, having no state tag, and driving with an open container of alcohol.

His charges of being a felon with a firearm and eluding police were dropped. On the other charges he was sentenced to five years in prison with two to serve, according to court records.

Born July 25, 1969, King today is 48 years old.

This story was originally published January 5, 2018 at 5:37 PM with the headline "Man pleads in murder case involving Antonio King, once linked to five local homicides."