Two men cut plea deal in Super 8 Motel murder case

Hours before they were to stand trial for the 2014 death of 39-year-old Troy Saunders outside a Warm Springs Road motel in Columbus, two men entered guilty pleas in Muscogee County Superior Court on Wednesday.

Attorneys for Trevon Brown and Mayson Deandrea Gibson, both 22, spent Tuesday and early Wednesday negotiating pleas with Assistant District Attorney George Lipscomb.

As Judge Frank Jordan was prepared to begin striking a jury, Richard Hagler, representing Gibson, and Tim Flournoy, representing Brown, announced to the court that a deal had been reached.

Jordan then accepted the plea deals to one count each of attempted armed robbery, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. The judge sentenced each man, both high school graduates with no history of serious legal trouble, to the full 20-year prison term. All other charges against both men were dropped.

In May, a Columbus jury found Christopher Kelvonte Womack, 21, guilty of voluntary manslaughter and aggravated assault in connection with Saunders’ death. The jury declined to convict Womack on a murder charge. Womack has yet to be sentenced.

Lipscomb said that verdict played a role in the deal with Brown and Gibson. Testimony in the May trial indicated that Womack was the trigger man.

“The voluntary manslaughter carried a maximum sentence of 20 years,” Libscomb said. “We are convinced, based on the testimony of all the witnesses and the evidence, that Womack was the shooter.”

Flournoy called it a good result for his client, Brown, who had been in jail for more than two and a half years. He will get credit for time served.

“If it had gone to trial, there was a substantial probability that he would have been convicted of murder,” Flournoy said.

In addition to Womack, Gibson and Brown, Womack’s sister, Niesha Jones, was also charged in the murder.

Jones testified during her bother’s trial that Gibson and Brown plotted to use counterfeit money to defraud Joseph “Joey” Wilkes of marijuana after seeing photos of the drug along with guns and cash on Wilkes’ Facebook page. The two men had her contact Wilkes online to set up a meeting, she said.

Lipscomb said Jones told Wilkes she had rented a motel room at the Super 8 where they could smoke marijuana. Unknown to Wilkes, Jones’ co-conspirators, who were armed with pistols, would be waiting for him.

Outside the motel, Womack and Brown rushed Wilkes’ vehicle, guns drawn. Wilkes reached toward his jacket before Womack warned him not to draw a weapon, after which Wilkes relented, Lipscomb said in the May trial. But Saunders panicked, cranking the car to speed away as Womack and Brown opened fire.

One bullet punctured a tire on Saunders’ Buick Century; another hit the driver in the neck. Wilkes fired two shots into the air as Saunders, bleeding profusely, hit a curb that deflated a second tire, then got onto the road headed east, weaving and fishtailing, the prosecutor said.

Warm Springs Road becomes Gentian Boulevard just east of the motel. Saunders got about a quarter-mile away, near the Burger King at 3101 Gentian Blvd., when he bled to death. Wilkes steered the car off the road, got out, hid his pistol and went to the restaurant to call 911, Lipscomb said.

Jones and Gibson were arrested that same night, as police soon found her ID in Saunders’ car. Brown surrendered to police the following Jan. 28, and Womack was arrested in early February 2014.

This story was originally published July 6, 2016 at 4:30 PM with the headline "Two men cut plea deal in Super 8 Motel murder case."