Three men are on trial in Columbus double-murder. But a fourth mystery gunman has emerged
The focus of a double-murder trial linked to a gang war shifted Wednesday to a second house near Columbus’ Wilson Homes apartments, where two teens were shot dead and two wounded in 2021.
They were gunned down in a car passing a house in the 3100 block of Seventh Avenue, across the road from the housing complex, where prosecutors say the three men on trial unloaded on the passing Dodge Dart.
Testimony from the lead detective on the case, Sgt. Kyle Tuggle, revealed a fourth shooter was outside a house across 32nd Street from the Seventh Avenue shotgun-style building the suspects had been in, and police believe that house was where the trio on trial stored drugs for sale.
The fourth shooter, recorded on video before the barrage of gunfire around 10 p.m. on June 14, 2021, had a rifle and a backpack. He is not on trial because police never identified him, Tuggle said.
He said police searching the Seventh Avenue house found a TV, liquor bottles, ashtrays, a rifle clip with bullets in it, and a table for playing cards, and decided that was where the suspects hung out waiting for drug customers.
Surveillance video from Wilson Homes security cameras showed visitors first went to that house before walking over to the 32nd Street house, where police with a search warrant later found five pounds of marijuana, a handgun, and more ammunition, Tuggle said.
He and prosecutor Cara Convery twice held up bags of marijuana for jurors to see Wednesday, as police searching the Third Avenue home of suspect Homer Upshaw’s girlfriend found 15.4 pounds of the drug that Upshaw admitted was his.
He is on trial with brother Terrance Upshaw and with Rodderick Glanton. All three are accused of acting in the interest of the Marlow Street gang, which is linked to a larger gang called US World. US World in 2021 was warring with the Zohannon gang.
Tuggle said police believe the teens in the Dodge Dart were in the Zohannon gang. Evidence showed two had guns and two were wearing masks as they drove by the Seventh Avenue house four times before a fifth pass when the car was peppered with bullets and crashed into a parked vehicle.
Jesse Ransom, 17, and Saiveon Pugh, 18, died from their wounds. Wandray Harris, 19, and Ta’Journey Lee. 16, were wounded.
Defense attorneys say they were targeting the defendants for a drive-by shooting, but the suspects saw it coming and shot first in self-defense.
A 21-count indictment charges them with murder, aggravated assault, criminal damage to property, possessing guns while committing felonies, and violating Georgia’s Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act.
Into next week
The trial is in its second week, and now is headed toward a third, as Tuggle’s testimony took most of the day Wednesday, and defense attorneys still were cross-examining him Thursday morning.
Court will not be held Friday for the Veterans Day holiday, and the jury has yet to hear from the medical examiner who conducted the teens’ autopsies.
With three defense attorneys and the prosecution allowed to go twice, closing arguments likely will take an entire day, before the judge reads jurors the applicable law and they start deliberations.
The defendants face life in prison if convicted. Glanton and Homer Upshaw both are 28. Terrance Upshaw is 31.
