A violent killing. Scared witnesses. Man arrested 1 year after Columbus shooting death

Nearly a year has passed since a Columbus man with an extensive criminal history was shot six times as he stood by his car outside 1052 Winston Road.

That was on April 28, 2018, when police called at 9:23 p.m. found 43-year-old Darrell Boggans had been gunned down in the street on a busy Saturday night in a neighborhood with a reputation for gunplay.

After interviewing multiple witnesses, detectives on Oct. 30 obtained a warrant for Decarlos Warren, 21, but for months he remained on the loose — until around 10 p.m. Sunday, when officers acting on a tip caught him at 155 Munson Drive.

Now charged with murder in Boggans’ death, Warren had his first hearing Wednesday in Columbus Recorder’s Court, where Detective Sherman Hayes outlined the evidence against him, before Judge Julius Hunter found probable cause to forward the case to Superior Court.

Here’s what Hayes said happened that night, according to the police investigation.

▪ Police started getting tips via phone soon after Boggans’ shooting, but callers left no contact information. People in the neighborhood were afraid of Warren, as he’d been seen with guns, including assault rifles.

▪ Police questioned Warren after the shooting but did not have enough evidence to file charges.

▪ Months later, a person believed to be an eyewitness to the shooting positively identified Warren by name and picked his photo out of a picture lineup. He said Boggans had parked along the street before he was repeatedly shot, the .40-caliber bullets hitting him in the arm, right side, twice in the chest and once in the forehead.

▪ Nine .40-caliber shell casings were found at the scene.

▪ Witnesses said the shooter was limping when fled the scene, running across the road through a cut-through toward nearby Brooks Road, where Warren’s family lived.

▪ Officers noted that Warren was on crutches because of a leg injury when came to police headquarters for questioning on May 4.

▪ Warren told police he’d left Winston Road about 6 p.m., but the people Warren said he was with couldn’t corroborate his whereabouts.

Under questioning by defense attorney Stacey Jackson, Hayes said police searched the Munson Drive home where Warren was arrested Sunday, but did not find the .40-caliber pistol used in Boggans’ shooting. Instead they found a 9 millimeter handgun.

Jackson also inquired about an April 1, 2018, shooting that left Boggans wounded and another man dead, asking whether any suspects were charged in that incident.

Boggans’ past

The Easter Sunday shooting victim, 24-year-old Alec Spencer, fatally was shot around 4 a.m. outside an unlicensed nightclub called “Night Life” at 480 Andrews Road.

Boggans and another man were wounded. Police later said they thought Boggans was running the nightclub.

When Jackson asked Hayes whether any suspects were jailed in that shooting, Hayes said no. But police did name a suspect in Spencer’s homicide, 24-year-old Damion “Dae-Dae” Collier. He reportedly pulled a gun on officers when they tried to arrest him and was shot multiple times. He died later at Piedmont Columbus Regional.

Over the years, police have tied Boggans to at least three homicides, naming him as a suspect in two and a witness in a third.

A police officer shot and wounded Boggans while trying to capture him Sept. 18, 2005, at Victory Drive and Veterans Parkway, authorities said. Police said they had a warrant for his arrest in the Jan. 5, 2005, slaying of Raymond Coppins at the “Boom Boom Room,” a Cusseta Road nightclub that since has closed.

After his arrest in that case, investigators discovered Boggans’ nickname “Bruno” matched that of a suspect in the 2001 homicide of Stanley McCray, an 18-year-old Kendrick High School junior whose body was found at the end of Hunter Road, police said.

A witness identified Boggans as the “Bruno” who killed McCray, authorities said.

Boggans was indicted for murder in Coppins’ death in 2007, but a year later prosecutors dead-docketed the case, effectively dropping the charges.

In May 2009, a grand jury hearing the case against Boggans in McCray’s death did not indict him, so that charge also was dropped.

In December 2013, Boggans was a witness to the fatal shooting of his friend Arthur “A.J.” Holt, shot during an altercation atop a downtown parking deck after his party had been kicked out of a Broadway restaurant.

The suspect in that shooting, Marquis Tyrese Shaw, later pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Shaw said the shooting resulted from a dispute between Boggans and his cousin Marchello Tripp.