Teen charged with murder in Wilson Homes shooting could’ve been a target, lawyer says
Facebook posts, cell phone records, surveillance video and statements she made to police put Elysia Cooley at Columbus’ Wilson Homes the night a 21-year-old South Carolina man was gunned down there, Columbus police said Friday at Cooley’s first court hearing.
Cooley is charged with murder in the death of Marcel Samedi, shot dead June 5 at the 3400 Eighth Ave. apartments. She waived her appearance Friday.
Police said surveillance video showed Cooley arriving at the complex in a vehicle with Samedi and others, before they went to a backyard barbecue outside Building 108. Samedi had come to Columbus with a group from South Carolina to attend the event, said police Sgt. Donna Baker.
That’s where gunmen among those gathered started shooting at Samedi, said Baker, who testified the video recordings showed Cooley also shooting toward Samedi as she left, fleeing with the others.
Baker said she showed the video to Cooley’s mother, who brought her daughter to police headquarters to be questioned Aug. 31, but the mother told police she could not identify Cooley. “She said her eyes were old,” Baker said.
Cooley admitted being at Wilson Homes that night, but refused to discuss Facebook posts allegedly related to the shooting, Baker said. In Facebook exchanges with others believed to be involved, Cooley wrote that she could not discuss the homicide, the detective said.
The defense responds
Defense attorney Stacey Jackson blasted the police testimony after Friday’s hearing, saying investigators had no witnesses who saw Cooley shooting at Samedi, and had jailed his client on scant evidence.
Jackson said he’s willing to admit Cooley was present: “We’re not denying that.” But if Cooley was near Samedi when the shooting started, she could have been targeted, too, he said: “She may be a victim as well, and not a suspect.”
Police believing that Cooley shot at Samedi does not justify charging her with murder and holding her without bond, he said: “My niece believes in Santa Claus, but we have evidence he doesn’t exist. You don’t make an arrest based on belief.”
He asked Recorder’s Court Judge Julius Hunter to dismiss the charges, but Hunter refused, sending the case on to Muscogee Superior Court.
Police have said that besides Cooley, they are seeking a second suspect in Samedi’s shooting, Corey Troupe, 24.
Officers found Samedi dead when they were called to the shooting at 9:47 p.m. Because no evidence or witness at the scene identified the victim, his body was sent to the GBI Crime Lab as a “John Doe.”
It took about a week before authorities were able to identify the Rock Hill, South Carolina, man.
Though Cooley was 16 at the time of the shooting, she is 17 now, an adult under Georgia law.