Detective: Man shot, killed friend after argument on 17th Avenue

Torrance Menefee was arguing with his friend Kenneth Holloway Jr. before he allegedly shot and killed him on June 18 on 17th Avenue, according to testimony Friday in Columbus Recorder’s Court.

With Stacey Jackson serving as his defense attorney, Menefee pleaded not guilty to murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. He was ordered held in the Muscogee County Jail without bond.

Judge Michael Joyner bound the case over to Superior Court.

Cpl. Darrell Middlebrooks of the Columbus Police Department said officials were responding to a shooting at 406 17th Ave. around 10:15 p.m. when they found the 25-year-old lying in the street with a single gunshot wound to the chest.

Holloway was pronounced dead at 10:45 p.m. and his body was transported to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab in Decatur for an autopsy, Muscogee County Coroner Buddy Bryan said. Middlebrooks said he wasn’t sure whether detectives requested a toxicology report.

Witnesses told authorities the two were arguing before Menefee killed Holloway but gave various accounts of what the dispute was about. Some said the altercation was over a bottle of alcohol while others said Holloway was joking around with Menefee when the suspect became angry.

Some of the witnesses told police they called Menefee following the shooting to question him about the incident.

“He stated to one of him that (Holloway) was making fun of him,” Middlebrooks testified. “He said, ‘I just got mad. I didn’t mean to do it.’”

Warrants were issued for Menefee by 3 a.m. the next morning. He turned himself in to authorities at the Public Safety building Tuesday afternoon.

Jackson, who arranged the surrender, said his client gave police the weapon and his concealed weapons permit from Alabama to show them he’s not hiding anything.

“This is a self-defense case and that’s why we thought it was important to ask Detective Middlebrooks about the toxicology on Mr. Holloway’s blood-alcohol level,” the attorney said.

Holloway’s death was the 12th homicide of the year in Columbus. It came days after Demonde Donya Dicks Jr., 24, was found shot to death at Double Churches Park near the basketball court. Jacquawn Clark, 19, and Akeveius Powell, 21, have been arrested and charged with murder. Officials are still searching for 25-year-old Derain Waller, the third suspect in the Double Churches Park shooting.

This story was originally published June 24, 2016 at 1:38 PM with the headline "Detective: Man shot, killed friend after argument on 17th Avenue."