‘On trial for their lives.’ Lawyers make final case to jury in Columbus murder trial
After a judge last week acquitted two of the four suspects on trial for killing a Columbus rapper over 16 pounds of marijuana, attorneys made closing arguments Monday in the case against the remaining two.
Featured prominently in those arguments was the trial’s key witness, Eric Spencer Jr., an accomplice in the case who testified against his former codefendants, after pleading guilty, then took the stand as a witness for the defense, claiming he lied about “everything” he said earlier.
“We acknowledge to you that Eric Spencer is a liar. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that in this courtroom,” Assistant District Attorney Peter Hoffman told jurors Monday.
But that doesn’t mean everything Spencer said was untrue, Hoffman added: “Even liars will tell the truth periodically,” he said.
Other evidence corroborates what Spencer told police happened the night Branden Denson was gunned down outside a Buena Vista Road Pizza Hut as robbers took a suitcase full of marijuana from his Jeep Wrangler, Hoffman said, That evidence is sufficient to find Dover Bartlett Coppins and Tommie Jamal Mullins Jr. guilty of murder and armed robbery, he said.
The jury will weigh only the case against Coppins and Mullins, because Senior Judge David Emerson dismissed charges Friday against defendants Tyree Jaquan Smith and Johnathon Lemorris Swift, finding insufficient evidence to sustain either case.
Defense attorneys were set to make their closing arguments Friday morning when they first asked Emerson to acquit their clients, basing their arguments on Spencer’s conflicting testimony.
‘Sneaky, scamming’
Columbus attorney Shevon Thomas, who represents Coppins, slammed Spencer in his closing Monday, calling the witness a “sneaky, scamming storyteller.”
Spencer can be charming and deceptive, and that’s how he persuaded police to believe his account of the robbery and shooting, Thomas said.
“Eric Spencer gave them a narrative and they built a case around it,” Thomas said, later emphasizing, “He has been lying from day one.”
Once charged with murder like his cohorts, Spencer pleaded guilty to lesser charges and agreed to testify “truthfully” against the other suspects. He testified March 24 and 25, giving a detailed account of each suspect’s role in the heist.
Spencer said Mullins arranged the rendezvous with Denson; Swift drove the rented Elantra they used; Smith took the marijuana from Denson’s Jeep; and Coppins fired the fatal shots as they drove away. He said his role was checking Denson for weapons as Coppins held Denson at gunpoint.
After the robbery, the suspects again met with Mullins, who divided the marijuana among them, keeping 10 to 12 pounds for himself, Spencer said.
While recanting that testimony Wednesday, Spencer said he lied about “everything that I said that they did.”
Defense attorney Stacey Jackson, who represents Mullins, told jurors in his closing that police never found any of the marijuana allegedly taken that night, so prosecutors can’t prove his client committed murder in the course of a robbery.
Both Jackson and Thomas argued the evidence shows Spencer shot Denson, just as police suspected in the beginning, before they re-evaluated the case.
The only suspect’s fingerprint found on Denson’s Jeep was Spencer’s, near a door handle on the rear driver’s side, they said. Denson was shot through that open door, leaving bullet holes in the back seat, but none penetrating the exterior of the car, police said, so the evidence put Spencer in a position to shoot Denson.
Thomas noted also that Spencer and Denson had dealt marijuana together before, and Denson was not as familiar with the other suspects. Denson waited in the parking lot at the Pizza Hut for up to 20 minutes for the rendezvous, and did not flee when the Elantra pulled up, though he had pounds of marijuana with him, Thomas said.
That shows he recognized the car as one Spencer had been using, because Spencer’s girlfriend had rented it, Thomas added: “Y’all put it together,” he told the jury.
Police found seven other fingerprints on Denson’s Jeep, but they didn’t match any of the suspects or any prints in a law enforcement database, Thomas said. That means Spencer had accomplices who have not been arrested for any offense that would leave their prints on file, he said.
Convict Coppins and Mullins, and the real culprits’ fingerprints eventually will be filed, and prove Coppins and Mullins were innocent, Thomas said: “These boys are on trial for their lives.”
The other homicide
Jackson pointed out trial testimony revealed Spencer misled police about another Columbus homicide that happened just weeks after Denson was killed April 6, 2018.
That was the April 28, 2018, death of 74-year-old William Meadows, found shot behind his right ear while sitting in the driver’s seat of his car, in his garage on Alta Vista Drive.
Police investigating that case decided Meadows was hit by a stray bullet fired from a passing car, a Hyundai Veloster that Spencer’s girlfriend also had rented. This led them to Spencer, who told them he was in the car with his girlfriend and Raphael Raymond.
Spencer claimed Raymond fired the 9-millimeter pistol out the car window to test it, because he was thinking of buying the gun, police said. Raymond was held for years on a murder charge, before he pleaded to a misdemeanor, leaving Spencer the only remaining suspect. He is charged with involuntary manslaughter in Meadows’ death.
Raymond’s defense attorney said Spencer was the one buying the pistol, so he was the one testing it, and blamed Raymond to avoid responsibility.
The Meadows case further illustrates that Spencer lies to blame others for his crimes, Jackson told jurors.
Other evidence
Denson’s robbery and shooting were recorded by a security camera on a nearby grocery store, but the blurry video does not show the robbers’ faces. Police said it still corroborates what Spencer told them had happened.
Hoffman told the jury two witnesses corroborated Spencer’s testimony that Denson was robbed of a case full of marijuana: The victim’s mother, Marcia Denson, testified that she saw her son packing the suitcase with vacuum-sealed bags of the drug, and she recognized the smell.
The father, Billy Denson, was recorded in a police interview telling a detective that he also saw the marijuana, and that his son told him he was going to meet someone by the name “KOK” and “TJ,” both street names for Mullins. The father died in December 2020, but Judge Emerson allowed the recorded interview into evidence.
Hoffman noted also that the last text police found on Branden Denson’s phone came from a phone Mullins used, and it said “OTW” for “on the way,” showing Denson expected to meet Mullins at the Pizza Hut.
Cell phone data showed some of the suspects also were in contact with each other that night, supporting Spencer’s account of what happened.
“Too much happened in this case for it to be mere coincidence,” Hoffman told jurors, later reiterating: “This was planned and orchestrated. It was not mere coincidence.”
The security camera video proved the people who robbed Denson knew their roles in advance and executed their plan without hesitation, as the robbery and shooting took only 50 seconds, Hoffman said.
The video’s clear enough to show one of the robbers took something from Denson’s Jeep, and the suitcase of marijuana his parents saw was not in the vehicle, proving that’s what was stolen, the prosecutor said: “It wasn’t a bag of old clothes.”
The last to address the jury was Acting District Attorney Sheneka Terry, who said Spencer would have needed other witnesses to cooperate in a scheme to set up his former codefendants, had he lied about how Denson was robbed and shot.
Spencer pleaded guilty and testified for the prosecution because police had all the evidence against him that they needed, she said.
“Eric Spencer knew that the evidence against him was overwhelming, so he took a deal,” she said.
But prosecutors did not make that deal under the belief that Spencer killed Denson, she said: “The state would not make a deal with who we believe to be the shooter.
Like Hoffman, she asked jurors to examine all the evidence, arguing the cell phone records and security camera video, along with statements from Denson’s parents, corroborate what Spencer first testified to in regard to the defendants on trial.
This story was originally published April 4, 2022 at 2:06 PM.