Text messages, bullet holes and a video leads to arrest in Columbus homicide, cops say
Cell phone records, surveillance video and two bullet holes in a car door led police to charge a suspect in the 2020 slaying of Deondray Lamar Williams, a detective testified Monday in Columbus Recorder’s Court.
Trevarious Jahuan Lee picked Williams up in Phenix City on July 8 and drove him to Columbus’ Benning Hills area, where Williams was gunned down at Lafayette Drive and Patton Drive, said Detective Zach Cole.
Williams, 26, had been shot multiple times in the back when he was found around 8 p.m., Cole said.
He said investigators checking Williams’ cell phone found he earlier had sent a text to Lee, asking, “You close?” A reply from Lee’s phone read, “Yeah, pulling up now,” Cole said.
He said witnesses in the Benning Hills area had reported hearing gunshots and seeing a silver vehicle with some distinct damage to it speeding away.
Witnesses in Phenix City told police they last saw Williams alive when a vehicle fitting that description picked him up that day at Riverview Apartments, the detective said.
Reviewing social media posts, investigators found an image of the car on a web page belonging to Lee’s girlfriend, he said. Learning she had loaned the car to Lee, officers started checking more cell phone records, along with area surveillance videos, he said.
They discovered security cameras at the Phenix City apartments recorded the vehicle picking up Williams, and other video captured it as it traveled from there to Victory Drive in Columbus, en route to Benning Hills, Cole said.
Investigators seized Lee’s cell phone when he came to police headquarters to be questioned on July 13, the officer said. Tracking Lee’s phone along with Williams’, police determined the two were together and their phone signals followed that same route, he said.
Confiscating the girlfriend’s car, a silver Dodge Avenger, detectives found two bullet holes in the front passenger’s side door that showed the bullets came from inside the car, Cole said. They also found blood on the door and on the passenger’s seat, which had been encased in a seat cover, he said.
The trajectory of the gunfire showed it likely came from the driver’s seat, he said.
He said Williams was wearing a red, hooded sweatshirt, and red fibers matching that hue were found in the Dodge, Cole said.
He said Lee admitted texting Williams, but denied the two ever met up.
Police got a warrant charging Lee with murder on July 13, 2020. He finally was arrested and booked into the Muscogee County Jail around 10:30 a.m. April 15.
Judge Julius Hunter found probable cause Monday to send Lee’s case to Muscogee Superior Court. The 20-year-old is being held without bond.