Missing Columbus mom wanted to leave boyfriend, witnesses say. She vanished days later.
Missing Columbus mother of three Ebony Giddens was trying to leave estranged boyfriend Malcolm Jackson right before she disappeared last year, witnesses testified Tuesday in Jackson’s trial on charges of aggravated assault and aggravated stalking.
Jackson faces no charges directly related to Giddens’ disappearance on March 12, 2018, but he is accused of putting a gun to her head the previous March 9, when he was charged with simple assault involving family violence. He also is alleged to have stalked her by calling and texting her repeatedly when he got out of jail the next day, despite court orders not to.
A parade of witnesses Tuesday testified to what Giddens told them in the two days between Jackson’s arrest and her disappearance. Among them was Roderick Daniel, the father of two of Giddens’ three children.
Jackson was arrested for family violence on a Friday, and Giddens disappeared the following Monday. Daniel’s cell phone had texts that he got from Giddens over the intervening weekend, and a phone call from her that he had recorded.
In a text exchange that Saturday, Giddens sent Daniel a screenshot of a message from Jackson, who was trying to reconcile with her and to retrieve possessions he’d left at her Montclair Drive apartment, where Jackson had been living.
“Y’all so in love,” Daniel texted her sarcastically.
“You got jokes,” she replied.
“Y’all will be back together, but be careful,” he texted.
“No we won’t, no hell,” she replied. “Can’t be with somebody like that. Seriously, there’s something wrong with him.”
Daniel messaged that Jackson had a key to Giddens’ apartment, which had a metal front door only someone with a key could access. Giddens told him she got her keys back from Jackson, but didn’t know whether he made copies. She told Daniel she had messaged Jackson that he could get a car he left at her home, but “don’t go in my house.”
Giddens thought Jackson was jealous of Daniel, though the two no longer were romantically involved. At one point she texted Jackson, “We’re not together, so just let it be,” to which Jackson replied that he still loved her, and added: “And I ask that you stay single, because I don’t want no one else.”
When Daniel warned Giddens to leave Jackson alone, she texted him, “He ain’t coming back.”
Gunplay
In the phone call Daniel recorded, Giddens told him that during her dispute with Jackson the Friday before, Jackson hit her and put a gun to her ear, saying, “I’m going to blow your ear off.”
“I can’t be with somebody like that,” she told Daniel, adding Jackson was causing “too much commotion” in her life. All she wanted was to get her apartment key back from him, she said.
Daniel and other witnesses close to Giddens testified also that Jackson had been saying one of Daniel’s two children by Giddens was not his child, but another man’s.
Jackson had no evidence to back that up, they said: “Mr. Jackson concocted that story,” said Lakeithia Giddens, Ebony Giddens’ first cousin.
Ashley Jones, Lakeithia Giddens’ sister, said Jackson on Facebook publicly posted the question of whether a woman should admit she had a child by another man. That post was on Feb. 10, just days after Jackson and Daniel got into a shootout at Ebony Giddens’ home, Jones said.
That gunfight was on Feb. 3, when Daniel was to come to Ebony’s home to pick up his youngest child. Jackson, who had access to his girlfriend’s Facebook account, pretended to be her as he sent Daniel a message telling Daniel not to come.
Daniel didn’t get the message. When he showed up, he found Jackson waiting outside, he testified Tuesday. Daniel said his little boy came running out to greet him, and he held the child as he talked with Ebony.
Jackson walked up, wearing gloves, and told Daniel that the boy was not his son, and that Jackson would get a DNA test to prove it, Daniel said. Ebony took the boy inside.
Believing Jackson would attack him, Daniel hit Jackson first, knocking him to the ground, he said. Jackson pulled a handgun and started firing as Daniel ran, pulled his own gun and shot back, Daniel said. Jackson fled.
No one was hurt in the shootout, but Jackson later had Daniel arrested for aggravated assault.
How Ebony would describe the gunfight became another issue between her and Jackson, Daniel said: “He threatened her to not tell the truth about what just happened.”
Ebony promised to testify truthfully during Daniel’s preliminary hearing in Columbus Recorder’s Court, but Jackson dominated the testimony, Daniel said: “He spoke up to keep her from talking.”
Vanished
Daniel, who had a years-long relationship with Giddens before they broke up in 2017, said they remained cordial with each other and spoke often, discussing their children. He last saw her around 5 or 6 p.m. March 11, 2018, when he dropped his kids off at her apartment, he said.
Around 7:45 a.m. the next day, Ebony’s brother Alvin Brooks came to her apartment to take the kids to school. He blew the horn, but no one came out, he said, so he called her home phone and cell phone. Getting no answer, he called their mother, and then called Daniel. Neither had heard from her.
Daniel came over, and they tried to find a way into the apartment. Daniel yelled inside, and finally one of the children responded, and was able to open a back door for them, Brooks said. They found the children there alone.
The brother said he was bewildered and worried, wondering, “Why is she not here but the kids are? She never leaves her kids at home.” Inside, on a living room sofa, they found her purse, wallet and keys, but not her cell phone, which, like her, has never been found.
Police Cpl. Michael Balauitan, now a sergeant, testified that he was called that morning to Ebony’s home, and when he heard about Jackson’s arrest for family violence, he told detectives he suspected Ebony’s disappearance was not a typical missing person’s case. He got a warrant for Jackson’s arrest, for violating orders not to contact Giddens.
The next day, March 12, 2018, deputies arrested Jackson in Chattahoochee County, where he worked. Balauitan met a Chattahoochee County deputy at a Victory Drive gas station to take Jackson into custody in Muscogee County.
Jackson is representing himself, during the trial, with advice from attorney Angela Dillon.
In his opening statement Tuesday, Jackson told jurors they may have heard the saying that a defendant who represents himself has a fool for a lawyer, and added, “Indeed I am here representing myself, but I’m no fool.”
Lambertus told jurors they would hear from witnesses who would attest to what Ebony told them about Jackson’s conduct.
“The one witness you’re not going to hear from is Ebony,” he said.
The trial resumes Wednesday in Superior Court Judge Arthur Smith III’s Government Center courtroom. If convicted of all the charges, Jackson faces a maximum 35 years in prison.
This story was originally published October 29, 2019 at 6:31 PM.