Judge sentences four convicted gangsters in 2021 fatal shootings of two Columbus teens
The three convicted gang members who killed two Columbus teens and wounded two more in a 2021 shooting were sentenced Wednesday to life in prison.
Two were sentenced to life with the possibility of parole, and one to life with no parole.
Those were the penalties Judge Gil McBride announced after hearing from prosecutors and defense attorneys in the case involving three members of the “Marlow” or “Marlo” gang who fired 60 bullets at a passing car on Seventh Avenue at 32nd Street on June 14, 2021.
The shooting was across the street from Wilson Homes apartments, where security cameras recorded it.
Homer Upshaw, 28; his brother Terrance Upshaw, 31; and Rodderick Glanton, 28, were convicted of acting in the interest of the street gang when they opened fire on the Dodge Dart.
The barrage of gunfire killed Jesse Ransom, 17, the driver, and back seat passenger Saiveon Pugh, 18, and wounded Ta’Journey Lee. 16, and Wandray Harris, 19.
McBride sentenced Glanton and Terrance Upshaw to life with the possibility of parole, plus 25 years. He sentenced Homer Upshaw to life without parole, plus 25 years.
Those sentenced to life with parole typically serve 30 years in prison before they are eligible for release.
Police said the teens in Dodge were in the Zohannon street gang. Two were wearing masks, and at least two had guns. Pugh was found with his hands on a .22-caliber rifle.
Defense attorneys claimed the victims had targeted their clients for a drive-by shooting, so the suspects shot first in self-defense. They repeated that defense while arguing Wednesday for more lenient sentences.
Homer Upshaw was represented by William Kendrick; Terrance Upshaw by Shevon Thomas II; and Glanton by Allen C. Jones.
Defendants apologize
Each defendant addressed the court before he was sentenced, and each apologized to the victims’ families.
All denied any gang affiliation.
“I’m not perfect. I’ve made mistakes in my life,” said Terrance Upshaw. He has four children who need his support, he said: “I try my best to take care of my family.” He asked for a prison sentence that would leave him time to get back to his children, so they would not grow up without him.
His brother told McBride he had felt he had to shoot the teens’ car to protect himself and others. His 1-year-old son had been at the Seventh Avenue house, the night of the shooting. “I was in fear for my life and my family’s life,” Homer Upshaw said.
Glanton told the court he also had children who needed him. “I’ve never been in a gang, especially the Marlow gang,” he said. “I’m just sorry that any of this had to take place.”
The lead prosecutor, Cara Convery of the Georgia Attorney General’s gang prosecution unit, asked McBride to sentence all three to life without parole, but the judge declined to go that far.
McBride said the signature moment for him, during the trial that lasted almost three weeks, was testimony from a neighbor at Wilson Homes.
Besides striking other cars, the bullets hit nearby apartments. A young mother woke to sounds of her two toddlers screaming, and found them cowering in a bathtub, where they had taken cover.
That showed they had learned what to do when they heard gunfire close by, McBride said, and it “speaks volumes about the climate and the culture that produced the crimes that have now been proven in this courtroom.”
That toddlers here know how to dodge gunfire illustrates that “Columbus can and should do much better than this,” the judge said.
“That should not be the norm, in that community, that children know what to do when bullets start flying into their home,” he added. “We can do so much better than that, and it should never become the norm. It should never be acceptable.”
Here are the charges on which the three men were convicted on Nov. 14:
- Glanton and Terrance Upshaw were found guilty on seven counts of violating the state Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act; two counts of malice or deliberate murder; two counts of felony murder; four counts of aggravated assault; three counts of first-degree criminal damage to property; and one count of using a gun to commit a felony.
- Homer Upshaw was found guilty on eight counts of violating the state Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act; two counts of malice or deliberate murder; four counts of felony murder; four counts of aggravated assault; three counts of first-degree criminal damage to property; and one count each of using a gun to commit a felony, of being a convicted felon with a firearm, and of trafficking marijuana.
The evidence
Prosecutors said the gang had set up a “stronghold” at Wilson Homes, a 20-building housing area at 3400 Eighth Ave.
The suspects were in a single-family home in the 3100 block of Seventh Avenue, which prosecutors called a “trap house” where the men sold drugs.
Security cameras recorded the teens’ Dodge Dart pass five times before it crashed into a parked car after flashes of gunfire from outside the house.
The first officer to find the shot-up Dodge said a woman was standing nearby, staring at it. “They’re all dead,” she told him.
Only two or three of the 60 bullets fired at the car were fatal shots.
Those came from a rifle that left 27 cartridge casings at the shooting scene, all from 7.62-millimeter rounds, according to state firearms expert Catherine Jordan.
Prosecutors said Glanton fired that rifle from the front steps of the Seventh Avenue house the suspects came from.
Homer Upshaw shot a .223-caliber rifle at the car, and Terrance Upshaw fired a 9-millimeter pistol at it, prosecutors said.
Convery said no shots were fired from the teens’ car.
The shooting was part of a spate of gun violence that erupted in Columbus in 2021 as the Zohannons went to war with a gang called US World, authorities said. The Marlow gang was allied with US World.
The Marlows were a local, hybrid gang that included individuals from larger street gangs. Convery said Glanton was a Gangster Disciple, and Terrance Upshaw was a Crip.
The name “Marlow” comes from the TV crime drama “The Wire,” in which the character Marlo Stanfield is an ex-drug kingpin and killer, a gang expert testified.
This story was originally published November 29, 2023 at 3:45 PM.