Once charged with murder, Columbus man freed after serving jail time for lesser offense
A Columbus man once charged with murder when his accomplice fatally was shot during an attempted robbery is now free after serving jail time for a lesser offense.
Besides murder, Tommy Anthony Toombs Jr. initially was charged with aggravated assault and attempted armed robbery in the Feb. 9, 2018, scheme that led to the death of his cohort Nicholas Xavier Morris.
Toombs did not shoot Morris, who was 20, but police charged him with felony murder on the reasoning he helped cause Morris’ death while committing other felonies, as he and Morris tried to rob a man named Derrick Grant, authorities said.
Prosecutors later dismissed the murder and assault charges, and Toombs pleaded guilty only to attempted robbery. Superior Court Judge Gil McBride last year sentenced him to eight years in prison, with 48 months to serve and the rest on probation.
Toombs, 21, who had been jailed since March 9, 2018, finished serving his 48 months this past March. He was released under conditions that require him to get a high school diploma or its equivalent, to abide by a 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. curfew, to own no guns, to use no illegal drugs and to stay away from Grant.
Toombs, who was 19 when the crime occurred, was sentenced as a first offender, meaning he had no previous felonies, and his record will be cleared if he successfully completes his probation.
The homicide
According to investigators, Grant told police he was watching TV with his fiancée that day when his friend Morris called to arrange a meeting. Grant went to two places looking for Morris before Morris told him to meet at the Lucky Food Mart, 2026 Floyd Road.
That’s where Toombs got into Grant’s front passenger seat as Morris sat in the back seat behind Grant. Both passengers started beating Grant as one told him to “Give it up,” police said.
Store surveillance video recorded a portion of the assault, during which Morris pulled a handgun and pressed it to Grant’s side, detectives said.
Then Morris dropped the gun.
The weapon landed in Grant’s lap, turning the tables on the would-be robbers as Grant grabbed it and shot Toombs and Morris, investigators said.
A police officer patrolling nearby heard the gunfire about 8 p.m. and followed the noise to the Food Mart, where he saw Grant’s car speeding away.
The officer found Morris lying on the parking lot’s east side, and Toombs, also wounded, on nearby Kingsberry Drive. Morris died at 9:26 a.m. Feb. 11, 2018, at the Midtown Medical Center, now known as Piedmont Columbus Regional.
Grant later told police what happened, and showed them where he threw the gun out of his car as he fled. Having acted in self-defense, he was not charged.
Detectives the following March 9 disseminated images from the store surveillance video, asking the public to help identify Toombs as a witness police needed to speak to.
That same day Toombs with his mother came to police headquarters, where he was charged under a state law that says “a person ... commits the offense of murder when, in the commission of a felony, he causes the death of another human being irrespective of malice.”