Columbus teen ‘tired of walking’ killed homeless man to take his bicycle, police say
A Columbus teen killed a man to steal a bicycle because he was tired of walking, said a detective Wednesday during a preliminary hearing in Recorder’s Court.
Tellious Brown, 17, is charged with murder in the April 23 fatal shooting of 60-year-old Roy Wilborn, who authorities said was often homeless.
Wilborn was shot around 11 p.m. at a bus stop near Illges Road and Rigdon Road, and died after surgery at 5:08 a.m. the next day at Piedmont Columbus Regional, authorities said.
Brown was arrested two days later, after surveillance video, witness accounts and evidence found at an apartment where he was staying tied him to the crime, Detective Andrew Chesser told Recorder’s Court Judge Julius Hunter.
Fight at a bus stop
Chesser said investigators started finding evidence as soon as they arrived at the bus stop that night: Two 9-millimeter shell casings lay on the ground, along with two live rounds, and a bullet was lodged in a metal trash can.
Looking around, they noticed surveillance cameras at nearby businesses, particularly a convenience store and a liquor store, so they started checking the footage, Chesser said.
A motion-activated camera at the liquor store recorded intermittently, with the result that two crucial minutes were missing, the detective said: One recording at 10:58 p.m. showed Wilborn sitting upright at the bus stop with his bicycle, but then the camera stopped and did not come back on until 11 p.m., when the footage showed Wilborn on the ground, his bicycle gone.
Another camera at the rear of the business showed three men hanging around before one left to walk toward the bus stop, with the other two watching, Chesser said. The recording showed the remaining men’s facial expressions abruptly change as they backed up and started walking quickly away, he said.
A third camera showed the man who left his companions to approach the bus stop, where he exchanged words with Wilborn and got into a struggle over the bicycle, the detective said.
Later a tipster called police to report Tellious Brown shot Wilborn, the officer said, so police looked up Brown’s Facebook account, and saw his description fit the person others saw at the bus stop.
While officers were in the neighborhood, other witnesses flagged them down. One said he’d seen a young man at the bus stop with Wilborn, asking when the next bus came. That witness had walked up to Rigdon Road and 10th Street when he heard shots, and then saw the same young man pushing a bicycle up the road, Chesser said.
Investigators also found and questioned the two men who were recorded remaining behind nearby businesses as a third approached the bus stop. Both said Brown was the one who crossed the street and fought for Wilborn’s bike before gunfire erupted, the detective testified.
The arrest
The detective said authorities found a Britt Avenue apartment where Brown was staying, and saw him wearing a black hoodie as he left the residence Thursday and got into a car police followed to a store, where they asked Brown’s name. He told them “Jamarcus Brown,” so they arrested him for giving police false information, a misdemeanor, Chesser said.
Returning to the Britt Avenue apartment, officers searched it with the renter’s consent, and found a black and white duffel bag containing clothes, a video game machine and a 9-millimeter pistol, Chesser said. The gun had one bullet chambered and another in its magazine, he said.
Detectives later showed the video footage to people who knew Brown, and four identified him from the images, Chesser said, so police got a warrant charging him with murder. He’s also charged with being a minor in possession of a handgun.
Under questioning by defense attorney Mark Shelnutt, Chesser said the two men who’d been with Brown that night said they’d just been walking around together.
Asked why Brown would want Wilborn’s bike, the detective replied: “The only information that was relayed to me was that supposedly Mr. Brown was tired of walking.”
He told Shelnutt that a security camera at the Super H Food Mart, 1033 Illges Road, was 60-70 feet from the bus stop, and recorded the fight, though faces were not clear. “You definitely saw the struggle on that video,” Chesser said: It showed someone approach and gesture at Wilborn before fighting over the bike, with some flashes that could be gunfire.
Brown has denied being at the bus stop, the detective said.
Judge Hunter found probable cause to send the case to Muscogee Superior Court, setting no bond on the murder charge, a $500 bond on the handgun charge and a $250 bond on the charge of lying to police.
“It’s obviously a horrifying crime,” Shelnutt said after the hearing. “You’ve got people who supposedly were there and witnessed it, but no one even bothered to call 911 at the time. It seems a bit strange to me.”
Shelnutt would not comment on Brown’s background.
Wilborn’s family attended the hearing, but declined to comment afterward.