‘They’re all dead.’ Witnesses recall double-homicide scene in alleged Columbus gang trial
Police Capt. Matt Blackstock had no backup when he got to the double-homicide scene at Columbus’ Wilson Homes.
It was around 10 p.m. on June 14, 2021, and the patrol supervisor was in an unmarked car, using no lights or sirens, when he stopped at a crashed Dodge Dart. He could hear sirens in the distance as other officers headed his way.
A woman stood nearby, staring at the wrecked Dodge, looking stunned.
“They’re all dead,” she said.
In the back seat sat Wandray Harris, shot three times in the back, but alive. Slumped over next to him, shot through the head, was Saiveon Pugh, his hands on a gun in his lap.
The front seat was empty.
Someone tapped Blackstock on the shoulder. It was Ta’Journey Lee, who had been in the front passenger seat. He said he’d been shot in the back. Blackstock told him sit down until an ambulance arrived.
It was not until the medics got there that one of them stumbled over Jesse Ransom’s shirtless body, covered in tall weeds near the bullet-riddled Dodge he had been driving.
That was Blackstock’s testimony Wednesday in the murder trial of three alleged gangsters facing multiple charges in the June 14, 2021, shootings at Seventh Avenue and 32nd Street.
A special team of state gang prosecutors alleges they are in the Marlow gang, then battling the rival Zohannons with whom the victims were associated.
Prosecutors Cara Convery and T. McKenzie Gray say the trio on trial fired the barrage after the Dodge drove up and down the street five times past the house they were in.
The defense attorneys say their clients were the targets of a drive-by shooting, and opened fire to defend themselves.
Besides Pugh, found dead with the gun in his lap, front seat passenger Lee admitted having a pistol in his waistband. Harris, wounded in the back seat behind Lee, was wearing a mask. The defense claims Ransom also had a mask on.
The suspects are brothers Terrance Upshaw, 31, and Homer Upshaw, 28, who share the middle name Eugene, and Rodderick Glanton, 28.
Terrance Upshaw is represented by Shevon Thomas II. Homer Upshaw is represented by William Kendrick. Glanton’s attorney is Allen C. Jones.
Victims’ testimony
The prosecutors elicited more details out of Blackstock than Lee or Harris, who also testified Wednesday.
They answered questions reluctantly, and claimed they could not recall basic details.
Lee admitted he was with the Zohannons, calling them a “family,” a group of “brothers, sisters, friends.” He did not know if anyone else in the car was a member, he said, and he was unfamiliar with other gangs.
“I don’t want to be here,” he told Convery, explaining he would not have testified, had he not been subpoenaed. Witnesses who testify in court are “snitches,” he said.
He said he still has a .223-caliber bullet in his back, and remains traumatized by what he saw.
“I stopped caring,” he said.
Convery asked what he stopped caring about.
“Life,” he said.
Harris laughed when asked if he was in the gang, and denied it. He also said he did not know whether any of his cohorts were.
Both he and Lee claimed they were at Wilson to meet women. Harris said they had guns and masks because women were attracted to that. “That’s what females like,” he said.
They said they had never seen the suspects before, and they did not see who shot them.
Neighbors testify
The gunfire that night broke a window in a nearby apartment where a dozing 26-year-old woman was awakened by her daughters’ screams.
She found the girls, ages 2 and 3, cowering in the bathtub. “They shooting!” they yelled.
She ran to the bedroom where her disabled son lay near the broken window, and put him in the tub, too, she said, as she hear sirens coming.
“I would never live over there again, in my life,” she said.
Another woman said she was home with her kids, ages 13, 14 and 15, and her sister, whose car the Dodge crashed into outside after the thunder of gunfire. “It rattled my windows,” she said.
She and her family shut off the lights. Looking outside, she saw someone get out of the Dodge. It was Lee, who came to her door. “Ma’am, can I come in your house?” he asked.
She told him he could sit on her porch, until first responders arrived, she testified.
Prosecutors say surveillance video recorded the car circling through and the suspects deploying with their guns to set up an ambush. More than 50 rounds were fired at the car, but no one shot back, they said.
That video footage was shown the jury Thursday, recording the Dodge crashing as flashes of gunfire appear from outside the house it passes. The front passenger side door opens as Lee gets out, but the camera is too far away to clearly show anyone’s face.
About five minutes pass before Blackstock arrives, and in that time several bystanders are recorded approaching the Dodge, with some reaching inside before they walk away.
Defense attorneys said that was evidence the crime scene was contaminated, as police could not get there in time to secure it. Blackstock said he needed 10 patrol officers to cordon off the area.
Prosecutors clarified Thursday that the privately owned home from which the gunfire came is not within the Wilson Homes complex, but borders it. A next-door neighbor testified the three suspects were staying there at the time, and she saw them outside the day of the shooting.
The trial at the Columbus Government Center is expected to continue into next week, with prosecutors concluding their case on Tuesday.
It started with 15 jurors, so that three alternates could step in should any of the 12 deciding the case be dismissed. Three since have been excused, so no substitutes are left.
Judge Gil McBride banned cell phones in the audience Wednesday after one of the remaining jurors said Glanton’s mother pointed her phone at him. The judge said the phones had become a repeated distraction, and anyone caught with one may be held in contempt.
This story was originally published November 2, 2023 at 9:39 AM.