Man charged as accomplice in fatal 2019 Columbus shooting pleads guilty
Treyvius Crowell and two friends used the pretense of buying a handgun to set a Columbus man up for a robbery, police said.
But the robbery did not go as planned, on Oct. 18, 2019: When Crowell pulled a gun to rob the man, the man used the loaded weapon he meant to sell to shoot Crowell in the abdomen, investigators said.
Police found the 21-year-old Russell County High School graduate dead on the ground in the 1800 block of Amber Drive, where the noon rendezvous for the gun sale had been arranged.
But they did not find the shooter at fault: The gun seller had acted in self-defense, they decided, and the people breaking the law were Crowell and his two associates, Jaquon Cantrell Daniels and D’Eric Martin.
Because they had helped set up the deal, while planning a robbery, they had committed a felony that resulted in Crowell’s death, police reasoned, so the two cohorts were charged with felony murder and attempted armed robbery.
Because Martin retrieved and hid Crowell’s gun, after the shooting, he was charged also with tampering with evidence, detectives said. Daniels faced an additional charge of making false statements to police.
Daniels, 22, is set to go to trial on his charges on Jan. 9, 2023, prosecutors said. Martin, 24, pleaded guilty Wednesday in a negotiated deal.
Prosecutors dropped his felony murder charge, in exchange for his plea. For attempted armed robbery and tampering with evidence, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison with five to serve and the rest on probation.
Martin apologizes
Facing Crowell’s mother in the courtroom, Martin apologized, saying he wished she didn’t have to be there.
The mother, Yasma Williams, did not address the court directly, but a victim’s advocate with the district attorney’s office read her statement for her.
She wrote that her son also would be held accountable for his role in what happened, were he still alive.
“I can’t bring my son back, but each of the codefendants can still talk to and see their parents,” she wrote. “I will never have that opportunity again, and my family and I need closure so we can move forward with our lives.”