‘It’s just stupid.’ Prosecution scoffs at self-defense claim in Columbus gang murder case
Jurors hearing closing arguments in an allegedly gang-related double-murder trial Monday got competing versions of how four teens got shot at Columbus’ Wilson Homes apartments in 2021.
The prosecution said the three men on trial were Marlow street gang members carrying out the “execution” of rival Zohannon gangsters with a fusillade of bullets fired at a car the teens were in, killing two and wounding two more.
The defense attorneys said their clients had no connection to Marlow, and fired to defend themselves after the teens drove past them four times with guns and masks, targeting them for a drive-by shooting.
The suspects fired about 60 shots at the passing Dodge Dart at 10 p.m., June 14, 2021, on Seventh Avenue at 32nd Street. Prosecutors claim the trio sold drugs out of two houses there, one in the 3100 block of Seventh Avenue and another across the road in the 900 block of 32nd Street.
Noticing the car circling by, they deployed with guns from the Seventh Avenue house and took positions outside, raking the driver’s side of the Dodge with bullets on its fifth pass, before it crashed into a parked car.
The driver, Jesse Ransom, 17, took a fatal shot to the chest, and was found dead on the roadside. In the back seat behind him, Saiveon Pugh, 18, was shot through the head, and pronounced dead at the hospital.
Two survivors, both on the passenger side, were shot in the back: Front-seat passenger Ta’Journey Lee. 16, was hit once, and behind him Wandray Harris, 19, was shot three times.
The three suspects facing life in prison, if convicted, are Homer Upshaw, 28, represented by attorney William Kendrick; his brother Terrance Upshaw, 31, represented by Shevon Thomas II; and Rodderick Glanton, 28, represented by Allen C. Jones.
In addition to murder charges, a 21-count indictment charges the trio with aggravated assault, criminal damage to property, possessing guns while committing felonies, and violating Georgia’s Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act.
‘Senseless violence’
Addressing jurors Monday, lead prosecutor Cara Convery with the Georgia Attorney General’s Office scoffed at the defendants’ self-defense claim, saying they faced no obvious threat and acted only to protect their turf from rival gangsters.
Beyond the Marlow gang’s “drive for respect,” the teens were shot for “absolutely nothing,” she said, calling it “senseless violence” that could not be justified.
“The defense of this case has been much about a permission slip for murder,” Convery said, later adding, “It just doesn’t fit the facts of what happened here.”
At least three different guns were fired at the car, Convery said, alleging Homer Upshaw had a .223-caliber rifle; Terrance Upshaw had a 9-millimeter pistol; and Glanton had an AK-47 style rifle that fired 7.62-millimeter rounds.
A detective last week testified a fourth shooter with a rifle was there, but that gunman was never identified, and no ballistics evidence was linked to a fourth gun.
A firearms expert said the fatal shots came from 7.62-millimeter bullets. Convery said Glanton fired that gun from the steps of the Seventh Avenue house.
All the suspects are guilty of murder as “parties to the crime,” having together conspired to target the passing car and having carried out that plan, she said.
“There’s a very real conspiracy in this case, and it’s stupid. It’s just stupid,” Convery said.
She noted bullets hit apartments across the street, so frightening two children ages 3 and 4 that they cowered in a bathtub. “That is just not OK,” she said.
Unloading on a passing car also is not OK, she said: “We cannot open fire on people because they drove down the street.”
Defense responds
Thomas said his client, Terrance Upshaw, was not in a gang, but he did grow up in Wilson Homes, which residents colloquially refer to as “Wilside” or “Mobside.” They use hand signals forming a “W” or an “M” because of those appellations, he said.
“This is a community, and they’re all proud of where they’re from,” he said.
Prosecutors had shown jurors social media photos of suspects making those gestures, claiming the “M” sign represented the Marlow gang, and the “W” represented US World, a larger gang that the Marlows support.
Authorities have said US World and the Zohannons had a gang war in 2021 that boosted the city’s homicide total to 70 that year.
Thomas noted Ransom was in the same Dodge Dart two days before the shooting, when he opened fire on a home a few blocks away after negotiations for a gun sale fell through. The man Ransom had tried to sell the gun to was friends with Homer Upshaw.
Thomas said Pugh had motivation for a drive-by shooting, because he had been pistol-whipped by a man who was dating his friend Harris’ mother. That man was known to hang around the Seventh Avenue house, and Pugh was hunting for him, the attorney said.
When the same Dodge involved in an earlier shooting began circling the block, the men at the house knew they were under threat, he said: “They weren’t just guessing.” And they didn’t have to wait to be shot to defend themselves, he added: “It doesn’t work like that.”
The evidence police found in the Dodge proved they were right, he added: “Look what’s in the car. You’ve got guns. You’ve got masks.”
More guns probably were in the Dodge, but they were taken by bystanders, three of whom were recorded on video going to the car after the shooting and reaching into it before walking away, he said.
Investigators found a .22-caliber rifle in Pugh’s lap, his hands on the gun, and Lee admitted he had a 9-millimeter pistol that police never found.
Convery told jurors none of the victims shot back. “They didn’t even know this was happening,” she said of the abrupt ambush. “They don’t even have a chance to return fire in this case.”
Closing arguments continued into the afternoon Monday, before Judge Gil McBride read jurors the applicable law and they began weighing the evidence.
This story was originally published November 13, 2023 at 12:41 PM.