Suspect in upcoming Columbus murder trial plans to plead, testify for the prosecution
A Columbus murder case with five suspects will have one defendant fewer when it goes to trial next week.
The five are charged in the April 6, 2018, fatal shooting of Branden Denson in the parking lot of a Pizza Hut on Buena Vista Road, where they allegedly robbed Denson of a suitcase containing about 15 pounds of marijuana, according to Columbus police.
The trial was set to begin Monday with jury selection, but now one of the suspects will plead guilty first, before the jury pool arrives.
In a pretrial hearing Tuesday, attorneys said Eric Randall Spencer Jr., 28, will testify for the prosecution after he pleads guilty to charges other than murder, as his murder counts likely will be dropped in exchange for his testimony.
Spencer’s other charges are armed robbery, using a gun to commit a crime, and being a convicted felon with a firearm. Though he is to plead Monday, he will not be sentenced until after the trial ends, prosecutors said.
Spencer is represented by attorney Susan Henderson, who said Tuesday that he has not negotiated a sentence with his plea, so the judge will decide what penalty he faces.
Here are the other defendants, their charges and attorneys:
- Dover Bartlett Coppins, 27, charged with murder, armed robbery, using a gun to commit a crime and being a convicted felon with a firearm. He is represented by Shevon Thomas.
- Tommie Jamal Mullins Jr., 28, charged with murder and armed robbery. He is represented by Stacey Jackson.
- Tyree Jaquan Smith, 24, charged with murder and armed robbery. He is represented by William Kendrick.
- Johnathon Lemorris Swift, 30, charged with murder and armed robbery. He’s represented by Michael Eddings.
Eddings and Swift were not present at Tuesday’s pretrial hearing because the attorney had a scheduling conflict.
The suspects will be tried at the Columbus Government Center before Senior Judge David Emerson of Douglas County, who temporarily is handling cases assigned to the court of Columbus Judge William Rumer, who retired last year.
The defendants are accused of taking the marijuana from Denson after shooting him three times in the back about 10:30 p.m. as he sat in his black Jeep Wrangler outside the Pizza Hut at 4236 Buena Vista Road.
Denson, 32, also known by the rap name “Billion Dollar BD,” pulled into the parking lot and waited around 10 to 20 minutes before four people in a rented Kia pulled up beside his Jeep, detective Robert Nicholas testified during a May 2019 preliminary hearing for Smith.
Nicholas said surveillance video from a nearby store recorded three people getting out of the Kia and going to Denson’s Jeep, where two confronted Denson as Smith grabbed the suitcase of marijuana and took it to the Kia. The security footage also showed muzzle flashes from shots being fired, the detective said.
During an August 2018 hearing for Mullins, Nicholas testified a witness told police the suspects met with Mullins before the shooting, so that he could assign each a role in the scheme. Police have said they believe Mullins arranged the rendezvous with Denson at the restaurant.
“The plan was that instead of buying the marijuana from Mr. Denson, they were going to steal the marijuana from Mr. Denson,” the detective said.
The suspects again met with Mullins after the robbery, and Mullins divided the marijuana between them, and congratulated Coppins for having fired the fatal shots, Nicholas said the witness told investigators.
Jackson, Mullins’ attorney, said then that he thought Spencer was the unidentified witness Nicholas referred to, because police had reported they had no eyewitnesses until Spencer’s arrest.
This story was originally published March 16, 2022 at 5:00 AM.