Woman was leaving boyfriend when both got snared in Columbus murder case, she testifies
Anna Elizabeth Stecenko was trying to break up with Gerald Wayne Reed III when both she and her estranged boyfriend were charged with murder in a 2019 fatal shooting.
The victim was Jaylin Jaquan Williams, gunned down Aug. 1 in Columbus’ midtown area, where Reed had tried to persuade Stecenko to lure Williams from his Wallace Drive home so Reed and two others could rob him, she testified in Muscogee Superior Court.
She refused to do that, provoking a heated argument that convinced her she needed to get Reed out of her home on Fairview Drive, where he had been staying, she said, adding she already had begun to fear him because he had started carrying a gun and talking about robbing people.
Stecenko testified Tuesday while pleading guilty to reduced charges in Williams’ death. Reed pleaded guilty in another negotiated deal on Monday. Both have agreed to testify against two other defendants in a murder trial set for June 13.
Stecenko, 23, said that after refusing to act as bait for Reed and his cohorts, she dropped Reed off on Schatulga Road to meet with his alleged accomplices, Christian Desean Patrick and Jordan Jamal Seldon.
She afterward drove to Williams’ home to have him replace a faulty THC-oil cartridge he had sold her for a vaping device, meeting him on the street and leaving as soon as he gave her to cartridge, she said.
She then went home and started gathering her things, intending to leave Reed and stay for a while with her mother in Harris County, she said. She hoped Reed would move out while she was gone.
She soon learned on social media that Williams had been killed in a shooting, and later Reed told her that Williams had started shooting at Reed, Patrick and Seldon as soon as he saw them approaching, she said.
Patrick and Seldon had fled, during the shootout, but they had left Reed behind, and police caught and questioned him before releasing him at Stecenko’s Fairview Drive home, she testified.
She and Reed returned to Williams’ neighborhood to find a gun Reed had hidden there, after the gunfight, and then they took the weapon to Harris County to bury it near her mother’s house, she said.
When police questioned Reed again, they also asked her about buying drugs from Williams, she said. Detectives wanted her and Reed to record phone calls of Seldon and Patrick admitting their roles in Williams’ case, but the two suspects would not do that, she said.
Police arrested Reed on Aug. 13, 2019, she said, and days later charged her after learning she helped hide his gun, which investigators recovered.
The charges
Besides tampering with evidence, Stecenko was indicted this past April on the same charges as the other suspects: malice or intentional murder; felony murder for allegedly causing Williams’ death while committing the felony of aggravated assault; aggravated assault; and using a gun to commit a crime.
Patrick and Seldon are set for trial on the murder, assault and gun charges. If found guilty, they face a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Stecenko pleaded guilty Tuesday only to evidence tampering. Superior Court Judge John Martin said her recommended sentence will be 10 years in prison with six to serve and the rest on probation.
Reed pleaded guilty Monday to aggravated assault and to using a gun to commit a crime. The 24-year-old faces up to 25 years in prison, Martin said, but neither Reed nor Stecenko will be sentenced until the trial ends.
All other charges against them will be dropped in exchange for their testimony.
Reed’s account
Under questioning Monday by assistant district attorney Breanna Foster, Reed said he met with Patrick and Seldon in 2019 “to get some money.”
They got into Patrick’s silver Hyundai with Seldon driving and parked near Williams’ home, he said. Each suspect was armed with a handgun as they approached Williams’ residence from the rear, but they discovered Williams was sitting out on the front porch, he said.
Williams saw Reed, pulled out a pistol and started shooting, Reed said, so Reed shot back and ran, fearing he’d be caught in a crossfire as Seldon and Patrick shot back at Williams.
He found a vacant house, discarded his .45-caliber Glock pistol, and doffed a camouflage jacket before police caught and detained him for questioning, he said, adding he eventually told investigators what he had witnessed.