‘It was a dangerous career path’: Friend recalls shooting that led to drug dealer’s death
D’Angelo Singleton was hanging out with his close friend James Francesconi under a Wickham Drive carport on Aug. 15, 2017, when Singleton went in to use the bathroom.
He was on his way back when he heard two gunshots, and found Francesconi at the door, trying to get in, clutching his stomach.
“They shot me,” he told Singleton.
“Who?” Singleton asked.
“They did,” Francesconi replied. “It hurts so bad.”
Singleton looked outside and saw an automobile racing away, but could not describe it. He brought Francesconi in and called for Singleton’s sister-in-law, who got a towel to press to Francesconi’s wound.
Rushed to the hospital, he lingered two days before he died. He was 26.
Singleton testified Tuesday in the murder case against Clayton Perry, accused of shooting Francesconi while robbing the drug dealer of marijuana, which witnesses said the victim always kept in a Mason jar inside his black book bag.
Singleton said the marijuana, the book bag and Francesconi’s cellphone were gone when he returned to the carport after the shooting.
Francesconi was living with Singleton at 228 Wickham Drive because the grandfather he had been staying with kicked him out. The grandfather, James Redmond Sr., testified the drug dealing was one reason he made Francesconi move out, but not the only one.
“He had started being a little bit belligerent with his grandmother,” Redmond said, later testifying his grandson “called himself a little small-time dealer.”
Redmond said he once caught his son with marijuana on the front porch, and saw Francesconi put the Mason jar of weed in his black backpack. “He had it on him 24-7,” Redmond said of the backpack.
Singleton said the same: “I know he would never be nowhere without that book bag.”
But the extent of Francesconi’s drug dealing was a matter of dispute. Assistant District Attorney Al Whitaker maintained the victim dealt only in small amounts: He did not “move weight,” the prosecutor said, using street talk for selling large quantities.
Defense attorney Michael Eddings told jurors that was not the case: “He was a pretty substantial drug dealer…. It was a dangerous career path.”
Eddings said prosecutors have no physical evidence tying his client to the crime: no gun, no fingerprints, no getaway car, no blood or DNA. “So what do we have? We have rumors and lies,” he said.
Prosecutors plan to have witnesses testify to what they heard Perry say after the homicide. One is a woman who lived with Perry and a second man, Tremaine Taylor. Another is Robert Furr, a Muscogee County Jail inmate charged with murder in another death.
The case against Perry is notable in that two of the principals authorities have named are connected to other homicides, one as a victim and the other a suspect.
Police alleged Taylor helped Perry rob Francesconi, but Taylor is neither on trial nor a witness because he also was killed, fatally shot Aug. 31, 2017, on Henson Avenue. He was 18.
Furr, now a key witness in Perry’s case, is jailed in the Sept. 4, 2017, fatal shooting of 35-year-old Travis Porter, at Hannah Heights Apartments, 909 Farr Road. Porter at the time was facing perjury charges for allegedly lying on the witness stand during the 2016 murder trial of Reginald Jackson, who after Porter’s testimony was acquitted in the 2013 shooting of 23-year-old Dior Cheney, at Benning Drive and Head Street.
In court Tuesday, Whitaker told jurors Furr was in jail when he contacted police to report he had seen Perry after Francesconi’s shooting, and noticed Perry had a Mason jar containing marijuana that was “loud,” or potent.
Furr told officers Taylor had a Mason jar of marijuana, too, but it was not “loud.”
Furr said he and others had talked before of robbing Francesconi. When he asked Perry where he got the marijuana, Perry replied, “We did it,” and told Furr they’d robbed and shot Francesconi.
Furr is not credible, Eddings told the jury: “The evidence will show Mr. Robert Furr is known for lying.” Furr claims to be a local gang leader who has executed robberies himself, Eddings said, and could have been the robber who killed Francesconi.
“Robert Furr knew about this robbery,” the defense attorney said.
Perry could not have been involved, because he was home with his family in Benning Hills, about 2 miles away, where he helped care for an ailing great-grandmother, and where his girlfriend that night announced she was pregnant, Eddings said.
Perry was arrested Aug. 31, 2017, when police netted a dozen alleged gang members investigators said were involved in a burglary ring. Perry and the others were suspected of being in the Zohannon gang, a subset of the Gangster Disciples, authorities said.
Detectives said they were questioning Perry about the burglaries when he told them he knew Francesconi, and blamed Francesconi’s shooting on Taylor, claiming gangsters had put a bounty on Taylor’s head for Francesconi’s homicide.
Furr, then 19, was arrested Sept. 15, 2017, at Midtown Square Apartments, 1400 Boxwood Blvd., and charged in Porter’s death.
According to testimony in Perry’s preliminary hearing in Columbus Recorder’s Court, a tipster on Oct. 10, 2017, told police Perry and Taylor together had been talking about how they had shot and tried to rob Francesconi.
A few days later, a man claiming to be in the Zohannon gang reported Perry and Taylor had told him they shot Francesconi during a robbery, investigators testified.
Both informants knew details of the crime that had not been disclosed to the public, police said.
Perry, 18, is charged with malice or intentional murder, of felony murder for allegedly killing Francesconi while committing the felony of armed robbery, and of armed robbery, aggravated assault and using a firearm to commit a crime.
This story was originally published December 11, 2018 at 5:22 PM.