Columbus man fatally shot while helping injured girlfriend at 2016 ‘house party,’ witnesses said
A Columbus jury now will decide the fate of an ex-convict accused of killing the host of a 2016 house party at his home on Hodges Drive.
Jurors began weighing murder and other charges against Drevon Quantez Johnson after closing arguments in the trial ended shortly after noon Friday.
Johnson’s attorney argued jurors had ample reason to doubt his client’s guilt, as a witness initially blamed another man for Richard Collier’s fatal shooting on May 14, 2016, before changing his account of the assault.
Defense attorney Anthony Johnson told jurors also that a third guest at the 5908 Hodges Drive party afterward sent text messages to eight friends, saying he made a mistake, he was sorry, and he “might get life” for what he did.
“That’s what we call a confession,” the attorney said.
That witness surrendered his cell phone to police, but now cannot be found, so he did not testify during the trial.
District Attorney Mark Jones, prosecuting his first murder case since he took office in January, said he tried to locate that witness: “I couldn’t get him, despite my best efforts,” he said.
He said the evidence still points to Johnson, who allegedly shot Collier after Collier’s girlfriend was punched unconscious during a fight involving one of Johnson’s friends.
“You’ve got to look at all the evidence together,” Jones said, later pointing to Johnson and saying, “Look at him now. He has no conscience. He doesn’t care.”
Jones, with whom Collier’s mother Dawn Boyd has been sitting in court, during the trial, said he and Boyd decided to proceed with the case, despite the missing witness.
“We’re going to try the case,” he said. “We can’t wait anymore. There are too many shootings.”
He emphasized that urgency again later, referencing a recent rise in Columbus homicides:
“This is about the gun violence in our city, and who’s doing the shooting,” he said, afterward reiterating, “We wanted the trial. We wanted to get it to you. We didn’t want to wait any longer.... We cannot tolerate this kind of violence anymore.”
None of the points Anthony Johnson made is sufficient to raise a reasonable doubt as to Drevon Johnson’s guilt, Jones insisted: “We have met our burden of proof in this matter.”
The shooting
Witnesses said Collier, 23, was shot as he came to his girlfriend’s aid when she collapsed after one of Drevon Johnson’s friends hit her during a brawl.
Investigators said they found Collier on the back porch of his home, where he was pronounced dead around 3 a.m. A medical examiner said a bullet went through his torso from left to right, at a downward angle.
Johnson ran away after the shooting, and the friends who had accompanied him to the party had to call to figure out where he was. He told them to pick him up at a nearby car wash, where he emerged from the wood line to meet them.
Police could not locate him later, as he left the county, which Jones told jurors was incriminating conduct: “He did flee. He didn’t cooperate.”
Police Sgt. Donna Baker testified Wednesday that though some of the witnesses remained at the scene to speak with investigators, officers could not find Johnson, and later sought the public’s help in locating him, as Collier’s family offered a reward for tips.
U.S. Marshals arrested Johnson on July 8, 2016, at Mead Court in Jonesboro, Georgia.
Besides murder, Johnson, who was was 23 in 2016 and is now 28, was tried on charges of aggravated assault and using a firearm to commit a crime.
He also has been charged with being a convicted felon with a firearm, but jurors did not hear that evidence, lest it prejudice their view of the defendant.
Johnson was released from prison on Feb. 21, 2016, after the state Board of Pardons and Paroles commuted his sentence. His convictions included being a felon with a firearm, theft by receiving stolen property, obstructing law enforcement, fleeing police, and auto theft, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.
His sentence of 10-years on the theft charge started March 23, 2011. He was to serve five years in the Macon State Prison in Oglethorpe, and five more on probation.
‘A good heart’
Questioning Collier’s mother Wednesday in Judge Ron Mullins’ courtroom, Jones asked her to describe her son.
“He was kind of a stubborn kid, at the end of the day, but that was my son,” said Boyd. “He had a good heart.”
The 2010 Harris County High School graduate was working as a machine operator at Chassix Georgia Machine, before his death, said Boyd.
He was her only son, though he had three sisters, according to his Ledger-Enquirer obituary.
This story was originally published April 23, 2021 at 6:00 AM.