Defendant turned witness in Columbus murder trial is a ‘storytelling snitch,’ defense says
The prosecutor outlined what a witness said happened the night Branden Denson was shot dead over 16 pounds of marijuana outside a Columbus Pizza Hut.
The defense attorneys for four defendants charged in Denson’s death focused almost entirely on the witness.
That’s how the first day of testimony began in the Muscogee Superior Court trial, with Acting District Attorney Sheneka Terry telling jurors the story that witness Eric Spencer Jr. gave investigators, and the defense attorneys insisting Spencer has no credibility.
Spencer was among those charged in Denson’s death before he made a deal to plead guilty and testify for the prosecution.
“This case is about a sneaky, storytelling snitch,” said attorney Shevon Thomas II, representing Dover Bartlett Coppins. “This case is about Eric Spencer.”
Michael Eddings, the attorney for Johnathon Lemorris Swift, called Spencer “pathological,” and added, “He is the worst of the worst.”
Representing Tommie Jamal Mullins Jr., Stacey Jackson told the jury that prosecutors need Spencer’s testimony because they lack the physical evidence needed to secure a conviction, as police never found the stolen marijuana or the gun used to shoot Denson.
William Kendrick, the attorney for Tyree Jaquan Smith, said police searched his client’s home, and found no evidence linking him to Denson’s robbery and homicide.
The shooting
The story Terry told the jury was detailed, recounting that Spencer was among those in a rented Hyundai Elantra that pulled into the Buena Vista Road restaurant’s parking lot around 10:30 p.m. April 6, 2018.
Denson was waiting there in his black Jeep Wrangler, with the marijuana in a suitcase, having made arrangements to sell it to Mullins, who had texted him “on my way,” Terry said.
Mullins was not on his way, she added: He instead sent his four accomplices to rob Denson.
Terry said Spencer told police where each sat in the Elantra his girlfriend had rented: Swift was driving; Smith was in the front passenger seat; Coppins was behind Smith; and Spencer sat behind Swift.
When they pulled up beside Denson’s Jeep, Coppins got out and stood at Denson’s front passenger-side window until Denson unlocked the door, and he got in, holding Denson at gunpoint, Terry said.
Spencer got out and opened Denson’s driver side door, and Smith exited the Elantra and grabbed the suitcase of marijuana from the Jeep, she said. All three returned to the Elantra, and Swift backed the car up and then started forward, turning to leave the parking lot, she said.
As they drove off, Coppings fired at Denson, whom Pizza Hut workers later found dead in the driver’s seat of the Jeep, Terry said.
Police checking the Jeep for fingerprints found one matching Spencer on a door, the prosecutor said. They soon linked him to the rented Elantra, and confronted him with this evidence, she said, adding, “At that point, he comes clean.”
She said Spencer’s account matches surveillance video of the shooting, recorded by security cameras on grocery store nearby, she said. The video is not clear enough to recognize faces.
Eddings noted Spencer did not immediately tell detectives who was with him that night: He first named “another slate of suspects,” and police had to investigate them before deciding they were innocent, the attorney said.
Investigators have more evidence on Spencer than any of his alleged cohorts, Eddings said: “He is all over this case.”
A second homicide
The defense attorneys also pointed to another 2018 homicide that Spencer blamed on someone else: the April 28 shooting of 74-year-old William Meadows.
Meadows was found dead in his car, in his garage on Alta Vista Drive, after a stray bullet hit him in the back of the head.
That bullet was fired from a passing car, a white Hyundai Veloster that police traced back to Spencer, finding again that his girlfriend had rented the vehicle, detectives said.
But when they questioned Spencer, he blamed the shooting on a friend who was with him, Raphael Raymond, claiming Raymond was testing a pistol he was thinking of buying, officers said.
Charged with murder, Raymond spent years in jail before he pleaded guilty this past January to the misdemeanor of shooting a gun on a public street.
Now the only remaining defendant in Meadows’ shooting is Spencer, who was indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter, a felony, and the misdemeanor charge of firing a gun on a street. Those charges still are pending.
“He lied on somebody in that case,” Eddings said of the Meadows homicide, emphasizing that Spencer is not a reliable witness.
Jackson alleged prosecutors are using Spencer’s involuntary manslaughter charge as leverage, and said that Spencer will say anything to escape justice.
The first witness Wednesday was Denson’s mother, Marcia Denson, who recalled seeing her 32-year-old son, the father of two young children, packing multiple bags of marijuana in the suitcase in her living room.
“The suitcase was full,” she said.
He left in his Jeep that night around 9 or 9:30 p.m., she said.
Terry asked whether she ever saw him again.
“Not alive,” she replied.
The trial before visiting Senior Superior Court Judge David Emerson is expected to last more than a week, with extended cross-examination when Spencer takes the witness stand, and the defense goes after his credibility.
Here are the four defendants’ charges:
- Coppins, 27, is charged with murder, armed robbery, using a gun to commit a crime and being a convicted felon with a firearm.
- Mullins, 28, is charged with murder and armed robbery.
- Smith, 24, is charged with murder and armed robbery.
- Swift, 30, is charged with murder and armed robbery.
Spencer initially was charged with murder, but prosecutors dropped that in exchange for his testimony.
He pleaded guilty Monday to armed robbery, using a firearm to commit a crime and being a convicted felon with a firearm.
Emerson sentenced him to 25 years in prison, with 10 to serve and the rest on probation, following the terms of the deal Spencer’s attorney Susan Henderson made with prosecutors.
This story was originally published March 23, 2022 at 3:03 PM.