Mistrial declared after verdict in Columbus murder case about friends fighting over cognac
The judge declared a mistrial after the jury reached a verdict in a Columbus murder trial involving two friends who fought over a bottle of liquor before one fatally shot the other.
Torrance Terrell Menefee will have to be retried in the June 18, 2016, death of Kenneth Holloway Jr., who was shot outside a birthday party in the 400 block of 17th Avenue.
Superior Court Judge Bobby Peters declared the mistrial at the behest of defense attorney Anthony Johnson, after Johnson and prosecutor Gregory Winters learned a juror was seen outside court Wednesday embracing a woman who was friends with Holloway’s family.
Witnesses said the two talked for several minutes before hugging. Peters had instructed jurors to have no contact with anyone connected to the case, and declared the mistrial because of possible prejudice.
The encounter occurred after jurors deliberated for about an hour Wednesday, then asked to be dismissed for the day. They returned Thursday morning, and announced they had a verdict, but Peters set it aside, and did not disclose what the jury had decided. He called it “the verdict that never was.”
Johnson later revealed the jury’s verdict was not guilty, so his client would have been acquitted.
Peters reminded jurors of his instructions to avoid outside contacts on the case. “Evidently it didn’t work on everybody,” he said, adding that the entire trial process would have to start over. “The law is very clear,” he said. “I’ve got to stick with what the law says.”
Besides murder, Menefee was charged with aggravated assault and using a gun to commit a crime.
Menefee did not deny shooting Holloway, but claimed he did so in self-defense, as the two argued over a $60 bottle of Hennessy cognac.
‘The gun moved’
Taking the witness stand Wednesday, the 36-year-old said he feared for his life when Holloway pushed him twice and touched a gun Menefee had holstered on his left side.
“The gun moved. It felt like it was coming out of my holster,” Menefee testified. He pushed Holloway’s hand away, jumped backward, drew his .40-caliber Smith & Wesson and fired. “I shot him dead in the middle of his chest,” he said.
Winters pressed Menefee to explain why he felt threatened by an unarmed man.
“When he grabbed my gun, that’s the danger,” Menefee said, adding that Holloway’s brother Tremel Cobb and cousin Roderick Johnson also were present. “I was immediately in fear because I was outnumbered.”
He claimed that as Holloway, 25, confronted him about the cognac, Holloway threatened him, saying, ““You’re back here with the real killers now. I’m going to take your s--t, man.”
Holloway first reached for Menefee’s cell phone, clipped to his waist on his right side, and then for the gun holstered on his left side, the suspect said, adding, “I just shot him.”
Cobb was trying to separate the two combatants, at the time, standing between them with his hands outstretched toward each. Cobb testified Tuesday that he could feel the heat as the bullet passed by, and then heard his brother curse.
Police were called to the shooting at 10:15 p.m., and Holloway was pronounced dead at 10:45 p.m. Though Menefee afterward left the scene, he later surrendered to police, turning over the gun and his permit to carry a concealed weapon. Ballistics tests matched the .40-caliber Smith & Wesson to a cartridge casing police found at the scene.
This story was originally published April 13, 2023 at 10:53 AM.