With 2 cousins who blamed each other acquitted, no one’s left to try in Oakland Park homicide

Now that juries in separate murder trials have acquitted two Cusseta cousins who blamed each other for Robert Earl Bolden’s homicide, no one’s left to try in the Nov. 5, 2014, fatal shooting in the Oakland Park neighborhood.

After hours of start-and-stop deliberations in Adrian Patterson’s trial this week, the jury at 1:40 p.m. Tuesday announced it had acquitted him of all charges, including murder, aggravated assault and armed robbery.

Patterson is the second suspect to be cleared in Bolden’s slaying, which occurred during a noon drug deal near the Riverwind Apartments at the end of Hawthorne Drive. His cousin Gary Lee Jones was acquitted of all charges on Dec. 1, 2017, after testifying that Patterson shot Bolden.

With both cousins found innocent, no defendant remains to stand trial for Bolden’s slaying.

Antonio Benefield, a witness who agreed to drive Patterson’s car to Oakland Park that day, is not considered criminally culpable. During Jones’ trial, Benefield testified that Jones got into the car after the shooting and said he had to shoot Bolden, because Bolden pulled a gun on him during the marijuana deal.

Jones testified that Patterson shot Bolden while Jones was waiting down the street. And Frank Smith, a witness who drove Bolden to Oakland Park, said the gunman who shot Bolden was wearing a gray, hooded sweatshirt.

When gunfire erupted, Benefield drove away, forcing both Jones and Patterson to chase after the car. Nearby residents’ security cameras recorded the pair running by, and the footage showed Patterson wearing a gray hoodie.

During Patterson’s trial, the jury heard a recorded statement in which Patterson told a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent that Bolden pulled a pistol and tried to rob him, shooting at his head as the two scuffled, and then Jones came up and shot Bolden point-blank before the cousins went running after the car.

So, Jones blamed Patterson, and Patterson blamed Jones, and neither took the blame.

Deliberations restarted

Closing arguments in the case were Friday. After the first few hours of deliberation, a juror had to be released because of a family emergency. Judge Ben Land then had an alternate or substitute juror take that one’s place.

Alternates hear all the trial testimony, but do not sit in on deliberations unless a replacement’s needed. When a juror’s replaced after deliberations have begun, they have to start over. Deliberations with the replacement juror began around 1:30 p.m. Monday.

Three hours later, the jury announced it was deadlocked. At 8:50 a.m. Tuesday, Land gave jurors what the courts call an “Allen charge,” sometimes referred to as the “dynamite charge,” urging them to remain open to other arguments and to reach a unanimous verdict.

During the trial, jurors heard hours of sometimes confusing and contradictory evidence.

Bolden died on his 44th birthday. The bullet that killed him came from a .32-caliber revolver. Another bullet was found lodged in the sunroof of the Honda CRV that Bolden had been sitting in. The gun was never found.

Smith, the Honda’s driver, said that when he gave Bolden a ride to Oakland Park that day, he saw Bolden get out to talk to someone in gray hoodie who abruptly shouted “Give me all you got!” before gunfire erupted.

Patterson and Jones, who’d come from Cusseta in Patterson’s car, met Benefield here in Columbus and asked him to drive them to Oakland Park to meet Bolden to buy marijuana, because the Cusseta cousins weren’t familiar with the city.

When he heard shots, Benefield drove off, with Jones and Patterson running after the white Geo Prism, crossing yards and jumping fences along Ramsey Road, where some residents’ home-security cameras recorded them dashing by.

Jones was the first suspect charged in Bolden’s shooting, after Benefield identified him. Patterson’s defense attorney, Stacey Jackson, used the police photo lineup from which Benefield picked Jones’ picture as evidence his client was innocent.

Jones’ attorney was Michael Eddings, who recorded a statement from Patterson in which Patterson said someone in a passing car fired the shots that killed Bolden. Later Patterson claimed he was forced to give that statement after Jones’ father abducted him at gunpoint in Cusseta and drove him to Eddings’ office in Columbus.

That kidnapping allegation prompted a GBI investigation. During the GBI probe, Patterson twice in recorded statements told an agent that Bolden had tried to shoot him before Jones killed Bolden.

Jones was charged with murder on Jan. 18, 2015.

Patterson was not charged with murder until Sept. 7, 2017, after he talked to Eddings, and then twice repeated his incriminating statements to the GBI. At the time he gave those statements, Patterson was only a witness for the prosecution, not a suspect.

Jackson last week accused Eddings of getting Patterson charged with murder. Jackson said Eddings did not have Jackson’s permission to speak to his client, who would not have been accused of murder if not for the incriminating statement Eddings recorded.

Eddings said he did not need Jackson’s approval to talk to Patterson, because Patterson was not charged in the murder case. Still he tried to contact Jackson, who never returned his calls, he said.

Jackson noted that Patterson was not charged with murder at the time, but he was charged with making false statements to police in the murder case, and Eddings needed his OK to speak with his client.

Eddings twice before has been disciplined for speaking to other attorneys’ clients without their permission.

This story was originally published May 22, 2018 at 5:08 PM with the headline "With 2 cousins who blamed each other acquitted, no one’s left to try in Oakland Park homicide."