Man pleads guilty but mentally ill in death of 19-year-old woman in Columbus
A man charged in the death of a woman in Columbus three-and-a-half years ago has pleaded guilty but mentally ill, according to court documents.
Marquavious Spearman, 30, entered a negotiated plea of guilty but mentally ill to the charges of malice murder, aggravated assault and two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony in connection with the death of 19-year-old Neveah Nevels, according to the documents.
Spearman was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole, plus 10 years of probation, according to the document.
Assistant District Attorney Meghan Bowden prosecuted the case. The defendant was represented by Anthony Johnson. The case was presided over by Judge Maureen Gottfried.
Case background
Nevels was pronounced dead around 11:47 p.m. on Aug. 8, 2022, from multiple gunshot wounds at the scene on Buena Vista Road, Muscogee County Coroner Buddy Bryan told the Ledger-Enquirer then. A second woman was injured in the shooting, according to the Columbus Police Department.
CPD Det. Kevin Baldwin testified in a Columbus Recorder’s Court hearing that multiple witnesses saw a blue Ford Mustang, registered to Spearman leave the area near Wild Bill’s Jewelry and Pawn on Buena Vista Road on Aug. 8, 2022.
Baldwin testified body camera footage from a responding officer showed the second injured victim saying, “Nevel’s baby daddy shot them.”
Text messages threatening physical violence toward each other were shared between Spearman and an unidentified man before the incident, according to Baldwin.
Spearman told investigators someone shot at him first, but he did not say why he didn’t report the alleged shooting.
Baldwin said a witness and the surviving victim identified Spearman as the shooter. Video was obtained from Wild Bill’s Jewelry and Pawn that did not show the shooting, Baldwin said, but did show two cars — one of them in the parking lot, where Nevel’s was shot.
Baldwin testified Spearman was not seen on the video.