Sisters claim self-defense in Columbus city park shooting that killed one, wounded two
Cell phone recordings of a fatal shooting in a Columbus city park last year were entered into evidence Friday as two sisters charged with murder claimed the one who pulled the trigger acted in self-defense after being pepper-sprayed.
Defense attorneys for Ceonna Shikeria Turpin and Eurica Denise Turpin asked Judge Bobby Peters to rule their clients are immune from prosecution under Georgia law in the March 31 death of Mar’kayla Marshall, who pepper-sprayed Ceonna Turpin before the gunfire began.
Marshall, 17, was pronounced dead at Piedmont Columbus Regional, about 90 minutes after the shooting, authorities said. Two others wounded did not have life-threatening injuries, police said.
Ceonna Turpin claimed she shot Marshall to defend herself and other relatives who were with her at Primus King Park, 1321 Staunton Drive, after the pepper spray blinded her. Eleven shots from her Taurus 9-millimeter pistol could be heard on one of the videos.
Prosecutor Don Kelly said three hit Marshall and two wounded two women who were with Marshall.
“I was scared. I was panicking,” Ceonna Turpin testified Friday, saying Marshall showed up at the park with eight other people, and she feared they threatened her, her sister, her mother and a 2-year-old nephew.
She was represented by public defenders Marie Pardue and Bentley Adams IV, who cited Georgia law authorizing residents to use deadly force to defend themselves or others, or to prevent a “forcible felony.” Pardue said attacking someone with pepper spray constituted aggravated assault, a felony.
Defense attorney Anthony Johnson, representing Eurica Turpin, joined in the motion to dismiss the case based on self-defense.
Peters said he would rule on the motions Monday. The sisters are set for trial on Feb. 6. In addition to murder, each is charged with two counts of aggravated assault.
Peters did not indicate how he would rule, but at the conclusion of Friday’s hearing, he noted the self-defense law has exceptions for certain circumstances: It says a suspect is not entitled to that defense if he or she “was the aggressor or was engaged in a combat by agreement unless he withdraws from the encounter.”
Among the videos Kelly showed the judge were Facebook postings of Eurica Turpin taunting Marshall before the confrontation, saying, “We can shoot it out like I said,” and repeating, “Let’s do it.” She later remarked, “Fight it out or shoot it out. We’ll do it.”
Those taunts followed an earlier face-off with Marshall at a Farr Road apartments complex, where Marshall sped away as the sisters tried to fight her there. They agreed to meet at the park to settle the feud.
Ceonna Turpin said the dispute started when Marshall insulted the sister’s 73-year-old grandmother. “That was very disrespectful,” the defendant testified.
The Facebook postings showed Eurica Turpin repeatedly insulting Marshall’s deceased mother, laughing about her body being cremated and joking about how she died. Though she did not fire the gun, Eurica Turpin is charged because participated in it.
The Shooting
Ceonna Turpin said Marshall and three others were waiting in a car for her and her sister at the park, but did not get out until a second car pulled up with more people. Two people were recording on their cell phones. One video showed Marshall approach Ceonna Turpin and use the pepper spray as Turpin ducked away and started shooting. Marshall could be seen falling to the ground as someone in the car yelled “Go! Go!”
Just before the shots, a woman could be heard yelling, “Shoot her, Ce’Ce! Shoot her!” Kelly said that was Eurica Turpin.
After the shooting, Ceonna Turpin said she got rid of the gun, when home and washed her eyes out.
But then she got back on Facebook, posting another video that Kelly played in court: “I sent her where her mother’s at,” she said, threatening to do the same to witnesses.
Questioning her on the witness stand, Kelly asked whether she saw Marshall fall, and the other two women get hit.
“I couldn’t see,” she answered. “I didn’t know that they were down or anything.”
Kelly noted that she hit the people she had aimed for, despite claiming she couldn’t see.
“Her testimony is not believable, judge,” he told Peters, adding that she took “a stance” to aid her aim before pulling the trigger. “The shots don’t start until Ms. Marshall is running away,” he said, arguing the pepper spray was ineffectual.
“Those videos are pretty graphic,” Peters observed.
Ceonna Turpin was 16 years old, when she shot Marshall. Her sister was 19. Both are a year older, and each still is being held in the Muscogee County Jail.
