Two of three suspects in custody for the alleged murder of Columbia resident Deshon Houston were before Boone County Judge Kimberly Shaw Thursday for a bond hearing.
Hearings were held for Bryton Allen and Jajuan Crockett. The bond hearing for the third suspect in custody, Damarkus Williams, is scheduled Tuesday afternoon.
Columbia police in a notice issued online Wednesday evening noted the department still is searching for Ja’shaun Barney, 18; Alqueze Jones, 19; Deazes Turner, 21; and Deljuan Turner, 19 on suspicion of their involvement in the June 26 alleged drive-by shooting that killed Houston.
Allen is being held without bond at the Boone County Jail and the county prosecutor’s office objected Thursday to any change in his bond.
Shaw kept the no bond status for Allen’s case and passed the case to the preliminary hearing date of July 20, advising Allen he should get an attorney by that date.
Crockett requested his bond hearing also be passed to the next available date of July 13, which was granted by the judge, also to give him time to seek a different attorney.
Crockett was represented by Columbia attorney Mike Hamilton in a resisting arrest misdemeanor case from March 30. Hamilton was in the courtroom Thursday to inform Shaw that he could not represent Crockett in the murder case against his client due to a conflict.
The resisting arrest case was wrapped up by Shaw through the acceptance of Crockett’s guilty plea and a sentence of 30 days in the Boone County Jail with credit for time served. This gave Hamilton leave to withdraw as attorney from the resisting arrest case.
Allen, Crockett and Williams all are accused of second-degree murder, armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon, all felonies, in the shooting death of Houston.
Court documents released last week detail the timeline in which the alleged drive-by shooting took place. Alleged participants in the shooting also are believed to have stolen a vehicle and used a vehicle of a suspect’s parent during the shooting.
Police pulled camera footage from nearby residences of Dove Drive shooting, which showed a white Ford Explorer and a gold Acura MDX driving by Houston with three suspects hanging out of the Explorer and a fourth standing up out the Acura’s sun roof while shooting, court documents stated.
Crockett is alleged by a witness to have thrown two bags of clothes worn by suspects away, which contained a drivers license of the stolen Explorer’s owner and 9 mm cartridges, in the dumpster of Bonkers at about 5:45 p.m. Monday.
Police obtained a search warrant for Crockett’s apartment at the nearby Lyfe @ Missouri complex, finding the Explorer owner’s wallet and other documents, an unfired 300 Blackout cartridge and multiple unfired .45 auto cartridges. In a post-Miranda interview Crockett said there only was normal apartment trash in the bags pulled from the Bonkers dumpster.