A day after withdrawing plea, second suspect pleads in brutal 2016 triple homicide
Jervarceay Tapley, one of three defendants set for trial this week in the brutal 2016 homicides of a grandmother, son and granddaughter in Columbus’ Upatoi area, agreed Tuesday to plead guilty to three counts of malice murder.
A second suspect, Raheam Daniel Gibson, also had agreed to plead guilty on Monday, the day jury selection began.
Tapley had agreed to plead guilty on Monday but he abruptly withdrew that plea when Judge Gil McBride asked him whether he in fact was among the three people who committed the homicides.
MORE: Second triple homicide suspect didn’t want to put victims’ family through trial, attorney says
Tapley refused to answer. After talking quietly to his attorney, he withdrew his plea and said he wanted to go to trial, leaving him and Rufus Lanard Burks as the remaining defendants.
About 130 prospective jurors were summoned Monday for the pool from which attorneys are to pick a panel to hear the murder case against Gibson and Burks, each charged in the Jan. 4, 2016, slayings of Gloria Short, 54; her son Caleb Short, 17; and granddaughter Gianna Lindsey, 10.
Before Tapley withdrew his plea on Monday, Senior Assistant District Attorney Al Whitaker recited what prosecutors believe to be the facts of the case:
He said Tapley was acquainted with the Shorts because Gloria Short’s brother was his grandmother’s boyfriend, and he lived with the couple. The Shorts treated him like a cousin, Whitaker said.
On Jan. 3, 2016, Tapley talked to the other suspects about his wanting to “make a lick,” meaning commit a robbery. The three that night used a bicycle and moped or motorized bike to travel from south Columbus to the Shorts’ 3057 Bentley Drive home off McKee Road in Upatoi.
Police later tracked their movements through cellphone records, Whitaker said. Those communications ceased for about about 75 minutes after the suspects reached Bentley Drive, he said.
At 8 a.m. the next day, the first Monday in January 2016, Gloria Short’s husband Robert Short Sr., a nurse, came home from working the night shift at a local hospital and found the three bodies. Authorities said autopsies showed each victim had “extreme blunt-force trauma to the head,” and Gloria Short and Gianna also had “multiple stab wounds.”
Two days later, on Jan. 6, 2016, Gibson’s mother called police to report her daughter had told her Gibson was involved in the case. Gibson later implicated the other two suspects, and divulged other details, police said.
Among the loot taken from the Shorts’ home were some of Caleb’s clothes, including an Adidas jacket, camouflage pants, polo shirts, and several pairs of Nike sneakers, plus video games and $600 in coins stashed in a box made for storing wine, police said.
Whitaker said photos of people wearing Caleb’s stolen clothes appeared on Facebook soon afterward. A fourth individual had been in on the planning, but got sidetracked the day of the homicides, Whitaker said. That witness got some of Caleb’s clothing afterward, the prosecutor said.
Also missing from the Shorts’ home were two vehicles, a green 2004 GMC Envoy and silver 2014 Volkswagen Beetle. Both were found abandoned in the Oakland Park neighborhood off South Lumpkin Road.
More than a dozen of the Shorts’ relatives were in the courtroom Monday, but declined to address the court before Tapley’s anticipated plea. They said they would speak at the suspects’ sentencing.
Stay with the Ledger-Enquirer as more information becomes available.
This story was originally published January 30, 2018 at 1:57 PM with the headline "A day after withdrawing plea, second suspect pleads in brutal 2016 triple homicide."