Mistrial avoided in Columbus teen’s fatal shooting after lawyer’s comment sparks objections
First the murder trial was delayed a day after jurors got trapped in a jammed elevator, then it got held up when a prosecutor’s opening statement went against the judge’s orders on presenting evidence.
For hours it appeared to be headed for a mistrial for the defendants being tried in the 2017 fatal shooting of Columbus teen Javion Shorter. But after hearing arguments from attorneys and researching the law, Muscogee Superior Court Judge Ben Land decided the trial will continue, after he gave jurors additional instructions.
Land had told attorneys to introduce no evidence that any one of the three suspects implicated another in Shorter’s homicide, but that’s what Assistant District Attorney Chance Hardy did, in his opening statement.
The three suspects are Nashira Kendra Miller, 23; Daijon Dawayne Williams, 23; and Javon Quindarius McClendon, 21. Each is charged with murder and aggravated assault in the Nov. 17, 2017, death of Shorter, 18, found wounded in the left arm and abdomen when authorities were called around 2:30 a.m. to Building 14 of Ballard Way Apartments, 5600 Hunter Road.
Because the three defendants were not going to take the witness stand, they could not be cross-examined, so allowing one to accuse another in the shooting would violate the accused’s constitutional right to confront the accuser. That’s why Land had ordered all the attorneys not to introduce such evidence.
But Hardy in his opening statement said McClendon told police Williams had been involved in a murder, and Williams’ attorney Adam Deaver moved for a mistrial, and the prosecution initially agreed.
The judge sent the jurors to lunch, and asked the attorneys to provide any case law supporting their positions. After an hour of argument on the issue, Land decided he would speak to the jury about it, to cure the error.
He told jurors that what lawyers say in opening statements is not evidence, and the evidence and the law are what they should rely on in deciding the case. “The evidence comes from witnesses and not lawyers,” Land said.
After that, the trial resumed around 3 p.m.
Earlier delays
The trial was to begin Tuesday in a ninth floor courtroom of the Columbus Government Center, but it was moved to a room on the ground floor after jurors got trapped in an elevator. Judge Land did not want them to have to use the center’s elevators again.
After an hour’s delay Wednesday morning, as deputies moved furniture to prepare the courtroom, Hardy began giving his opening statement, detailing what happened the night Shorter, who was dating Miller at the time, was shot.
Evidence showed Williams was looking for Shorter after Shorter and Miller got into an argument, Hardy said. Williams, the father of Miller’s child, had claimed Shorter “put hands on her” during the dispute, the prosecutor said.
McClendon stole a pickup truck and drove Williams to the Hunter Road apartments, where police believe Williams shot Shorter at Miller’s direction, the prosecutor said.
Describing how investigators confronted the suspects days later at Columbus’ Eagles Trace Apartments, Hardy told jurors McClendon implicated Williams in a shooting.
Hardy said McClendon told officers serving a search warrant that Williams two days earlier had described being involved in a murder, and that he had shot someone, Hardy said.
That’s when Deaver asked for a mistrial, arguing Hardy’s statement had violated the judge’s orders and prejudiced jurors toward his client. The prosecution agreed to a mistrial, telling Land the case could be retried next week with a new jury.
But Stacey Jackson, who represents Miller, vehemently objected, telling Land his client had been jailed more than four years awaiting trial, and she should not have to wait longer because of Hardy’s error.
Attorney Nancy Miller, who represents McClendon, asked Land to declare a mistrial only in Williams’ case, and sever Williams’ case from his codefendants’, so the trial of Nahira Miller and McClendon could continue.
Land told the attorneys then that with prosecutors’ having agreed to the mistrial in Williams’ case, he had to decide whether the law allowed him to separate the defendants’ trials in that manner, or whether a mistrial could be avoided by giving jurors additional instructions.
“I have never confronted this issue before,” the judge said.
This story was originally published November 3, 2021 at 1:15 PM.