Jury reaches verdict, decides fate for 2 men in 2017 Columbus ‘trap house’ killing
Having been jailed two years awaiting trial in a 2017 fatal shooting at a north Columbus “trap house” where prosecutors said people routinely gathered to use drugs, Andrew Joshua Scarborough just wanted a second chance at life.
He got that chance Wednesday, when a jury found him and co-defendant Thomas Joseph “T.J.” Meade not guilty of all charges in the Oct. 24, 2017, death of 19-year-old Dieondre Murphy.
The jury deliberated nearly 10 hours over two days before announcing it had a verdict at 2:27 p.m. Wednesday. Scarborough and his family broke into tears as the verdict was announced, afterward giving defense attorney Susan Henderson a long, tight hug.
“You know, as awful as this has been for him, it has had a positive impact on him,” Henderson said later. “In fact before the verdict, he was telling me, ‘I just want a second chance at life.’ And after the verdict, he said, ‘I just got my second chance.’”
His codefendant also was jailed two years.
“That’s the saddest part about this case,” said Meade’s attorney, Anthony Johnson. “He’s been unable to make bond. He’s just been waiting to get his day in court.”
While Meade remained in custody, life for his friends and family went on without him.
“He’s lost family members in that time frame, in regard to family members dying,” Johnson said. “He has lost contact with people he used to be very close with, and a lot of people have moved on with their lives while he’s had to sit here two years.”
Both Meade and Scarborough were expected to be released Wednesday afternoon. Scarborough now is 17 years old. Meade is 27.
Jurors had to sort through conflicting and confusing evidence from witnesses who gave varying accounts of what happened at the house in the 1200 block of 41st Street, near the Young Avenue intersection. Some gave police statements that didn’t match their trial testimony.
The core issue was who tried to rob whom.
Defense attorneys claimed Murphy pulled guns on Meade and Scarborough, demanding their valuables, before Scarborough shot Murphy in defense of himself and others Murphy threatened.
The prosecution argued the two suspects lured Murphy to the house on the pretense of buying a gun from him, then shot him while robbing him of the gun.
Police were called to reports of someone lying wounded in the street on Young Avenue at 1:55 a.m. Murphy was pronounced dead at the hospital at 4:04 a.m. He had been shot five times, and still had four .22-caliber bullets in his body.
Though police found him unarmed, he had a 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol’s clip or magazine in his pocket.
In a back bedroom of the house, investigators found a bullet hole in the wall that fit a 9-millimeter. Witnesses claimed Murphy fired that shot while trying to rob those in the house.
Scarborough was charged with murder for shooting Murphy, and Meade likewise was charged because of his part in arranging the gun sale.
Self-defense
Because Meade and Scarborough did not contest who shot Murphy, but maintained Scarborough acted in defense of himself and others, the prosecution bore the burden of proving the shooting was not justified.
The defense claimed Murphy planned to rob the drug house, having a friend visit to check the layout before going there the following night under the guise of selling the gun.
Murphy was wearing all black, and had two cohorts with him, one of them his alleged scout from the night before, attorneys said.
Henderson, claimed Murphy hit Meade in the head with the 9-millimeter and it went off, sending a bullet through the wall, but the gun jammed when he tried to fire it again.
She said Murphy blocked a doorway to a rear bedroom where Meade sat with other witnesses, and had one gun pointed toward the bedroom and another aimed at Scarborough in an adjacent bathroom.
That’s when Scarborough pulled out a .22 and started shooting, she said.
Everyone ran outside, and some said a running gun battle ensued before Murphy collapsed on Young Avenue.
That’s where a witness told him police were on their way, and he reportedly replied that he didn’t want the police, because he didn’t want to go to jail.
Where’s the gun?
Prosecutors said that scenario makes no sense, because Murphy had no gun when police arrived, so someone took it.
“You have to decide who to believe and who not to believe,” Chief Assistant District Attorney Al Whitaker said in his closing argument. “You have to decide, is this self-defense? Is this reasonable and justified?”
Some bullets hit Murphy in the back, and one went through his palm, so his hand may have been raised palm out, Whitaker noted.
He emphasized also that Meade and Scarborough ran away, after the shooting: “Flight is an indication of guilt,” he said., and so is taking Murphy’s gun: “They take a gun from a dying man. Why?”
The gun was never found, so it could not be tested to determine whether it bolstered the defendants’ account of its having been fired before it jammed, he said.
Alleged accomplice
Johnson told jurors no evidence showed his client did anything wrong.
“Thomas Meade, ‘T.J.’ as he’s called, he shouldn’t even be here,” Johnson said. “There’s no evidence that he has done anything.”
The only question was why Scarborough shot Murphy, he said.
Johnson reminded juirors that as Murphy lay dying in the street, he didn’t want the police to come. “A person’s last words are important,” he said, and Murphy told no one he had just been robbed.
Henderson said the contradictions in witnesses’ testimony were enough to raise reasonable doubts about Scarborough’s guilt.
She said Scarborough, who at age 16 was the youngest person involved, simply reacted to a threat.
“The events unfolded, and he just panicked,” she said, adding, “For all that young mind knew, there was about to be a massacre.”
Asked Whitaker in his closing: “Why is the youngest person in the house carrying a gun?”
Georgia law says anyone younger than 18 can’t have a handgun. Meade at time was 25, but Scarborough was just past his 15th birthday.
This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 3:01 PM.