Attorney says man charged in Columbus teen’s slaying tried to leave before shooting
The attorney for one of two suspects accused of gunning down a Columbus teen last year claims his client did not join in the assault and tried to leave.
Attorney Anthony Johnson said Reginald Raheem Sharp, 20, was present when 16-year-old Allen Toombs was killed, but only because he was in the company of Lilmarcus Terell Ransom, the other suspect in Toombs’ homicide.
Both men are charged with murder in the slaying reported around 2 p.m. Nov. 15, when Toombs’ body was found on the tracks under an Interstate 185 bridge near Conner Road.
Five days later, detectives arrested Ransom, 20, whose initial court hearing was postponed repeatedly to give him time to hire an attorney. He finally faced a judge on Jan. 5.
Police said then that they were looking for a second suspect. They arrested Sharp on May 4. His hearing was set for Wednesday morning, but Johnson waived it, pleading not guilty on Sharp’s behalf, and having the case sent to Muscogee Superior Court.
‘Mere presence’
Speaking to reporters outside the courtroom, Johnson said Sharp had wanted nothing to do with Ransom’s alleged assault on the teen.
“He’s not alleged to have been the shooter, at any point or anything along those lines,” he said. “He’s just an individual who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.... The only reason why Mr. Sharp was there was because of a friend, or an acquaintance.”
Sharp walked away before the shooting, he said
“This is something that he had articulated he did not want to have any involvement in, and unfortunately, he was just not able to stop his friend, or stop his associate,” Johnson said. “Once he realized that his friend wasn’t going to listen, he walked away. He didn’t want any part of it.”
Johnson said he will argue in Superior Court that Sharp’s “mere presence” at the shooting does not justify charging him with murder.
“Even if a person’s present, you may not know what your associate, what your friend, is going to do,” he said.
He said he was unsure why the three were together on the railroad tracks where Toombs was shot.
“We’re not quite sure if his codefendant was there to purchase something from the young man or not. That’s one of the things that we don’t really know right now,” he said.
Earlier testimony
During Ransom’s Recorder’s Court hearing, police testified they found multiple 9-millimeter shell casings near Toombs’ body, and later saw social media posts showing Toombs had been seen hours earlier at the Wilson Homes public housing complex, 3400 Eighth Ave., where witnesses reported he left in a red 2005 Kia Rio with Ransom and another man.
Sgt. Jeff Krause said that was about 30 minutes before witnesses near Conner Road heard gunfire around 1:30 a.m.
Officers on Nov. 20 stopped a car matching the Kia’s description on Morris Road for a traffic violation and detained Ransom for questioning, finding the car belonged to his girlfriend, Krause said.
Impounding the car, they discovered a pistol under the passenger’s seat, a Taurus G2C 9-millimeter, loaded with bullets stamped with the same brand as those found by Toombs’ body, the sergeant said.