Diverse cases, but same result

By Bill Rankin and Bill Torpy

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

After Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard complained that judges had granted bond to dozens of murder defendants, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reviewed all 43 cases that Howard objected to.

Although every case ended in a death, all were very different: a road-rage homicide, a senseless late-night shooting, a fist fight between brothers. Here, with material gleaned from often massive case files, is a sampling of murder defendants who got bond.

The judges identified below chose not to comment on the cases. Chief Superior Court Judge Doris Downs spoke for the court; her comments are in the accompanying article.

Bonded out on Saturday, arrested on Sunday

An argument at a Buckhead restaurant erupted into gunfire in November 2006, leaving Terrence Storr, 38, shot dead at a parking lot two blocks away.

An arrest warrant was issued for Shakir Cole, 28, who was later arrested by U.S. marshals in Chicago after fleeing, throwing his gun under a car and then being cornered by a SWAT team. Cole, granted 
a $225,000 bond by Fulton County Magistrate Karen Smith-Woodson, posted bond July 21, 2007, a Saturday, and was released.

The next day, he was arrested in DeKalb County on drug charges, plus charges of driving with a suspended license and giving a false name.

“Duck” Ferguson took brother to hospital

Donald “Duck” Ferguson, 52, got into a heated argument with his younger brother in May 2007 and knocked him to the ground, breaking the brother’s hip.

Ferguson then loaded his brother into a grocery cart and wheeled him to the hospital. Two months later, Richard Ferguson died of complications from the hip fracture.

Fulton prosecutors opposed bond, saying Ferguson had prior convictions for serious crimes. The public defender asked for a $10,000 bond.

“Look, I am sorry but I believe — I’m not sorry,” Superior Court Judge John Goger told the defender. This was a murder case, and a bond of $30,000 was “extremely reasonable,” Goger said. Ferguson posted bond in October 2008.

Kicked out of a concert, she plunges to her death

After Charles Martin and Pamela Boyd were kicked out of a Police concert at Philips Arena in November 2007, witnesses saw the two yelling and pointing fingers at each other.

Martin, 29, shoved Boyd, who tumbled down a stairwell, a witness told police. Boyd had reached out for Martin but he stood still and folded his arms, prosecutors said. Martin then ran down to Boyd and was overheard saying, “If you don’t get up, I could go to jail for this.”

Boyd, 44, died five days later from head injuries.

At Martin’s bond hearing in April 2008, Boyd’s brother urged the court to keep Martin behind bars, saying that “one day those bars may open for him, but my sister is never, ever going to climb out of that coffin.”

Superior Court Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore set bond at $250,000 and later reduced it to $150,000. Martin has yet to post bond and remains in jail.

Out on bond for shooting, man charged in another

Kevin Gross was in the front seat of a car going north on I-75 in September 2006 when he pulled a gun and, without provocation, turned and shot a man in the back seat, police said.

One of the bullets struck Tafari Myers in the carotid artery. His body was found later that day in Anderson, S.C., after another of the car’s passengers alerted police.

Gross was charged with murder. In March 2007, Fulton magistrate Richard Hicks granted him a $100,000 bond and later reduced it to $50,000. Gross posted bond on April 9, 2007.

A year later, Gross had jumped bond and returned to his home in Washington, D.C., police say. In July 2008, police say, a Washington neighborhood gang set out on a shooting spree, killing or wounding at least five people in three separate incidents. The next day, Gross and three men went looking for revenge, police say. They were charged in the shootings of two people.

Gross was indicted in the attack in August 2009.

Panhandling attempt turns into a deadly fight

At 1:50 a.m. on Sept. 2, 2008, Wanique Odwin, 27, approached a vehicle at the Shell station at 14th and Spring streets and asked for money. Odwin started arguing with a passenger, Kashma Avery, who got out of the vehicle.

The driver joined the argument and then yelled to Avery, “He’s got a gun!” Avery was shot and stumbled into the business, where he died.

Odwin was arrested minutes later at a homeless camping area nearby. Avery, a security guard, was carrying a Taser, and Odwin told police he was afraid Avery would use it on him.

Superior Court Judge Craig Schwall set a $175,000 bond after Odwin’s family (his father is operations chief at WRFG 89.3) told him Odwin has a child, came to town to get a job as a chef and would live with family.

The prosecutor contended it was either an armed robbery or aggressive panhandling and Odwin could have walked away after “it turned into a battle of words.”

Plumber given bond after road-rage killing

Zakar Yasharahla, 37, had just finished a plumbing job and was driving south on I-85 when he tried to merge into a lane at the same time as the Jeep Cherokee driven by Anthony Newberry.

Both men took the North Avenue exit and began yelling at each other at a red light. They drove on to the next light, where Newberry got out of his Jeep and approached Yasharahla.

According to court records, the two got into a fight and Yasharahla fatally stabbed Newberry, 23. Yasharahla was charged with murder and granted a $75,000 bond on May 22, 2007. He posted three days later and awaits trial.

Last words: ‘I’m not afraid of your gun’

At about 4 a.m. on Oct. 22, 1997, Ernest Golden saw a man with an AK-47 walking in the parking lot of the south Atlanta motel where Golden lived.

Golden, who reportedly was drunk, said, “I’m not afraid of your gun.”

He was killed by a single shot in the torso.

At the 1999 trial, Joe Anthony Carr’s attorney argued that it wasn’t Carr who pulled the trigger but his brother, Bernard. “He looks like Joe Carr. If you look at the Carrs, they all look alike,” the lawyer said.

The jury found Joe Carr guilty; he was sentenced to life.

Years later, Bernard confessed to his brother when the two were serving time in the same prison, and he wrote a note to the court admitting to the killing. “It’s time for me to face up and deal with what I’ve done!” he wrote.

In January, Judge Constance Russell signed an extraordinary motion for a new trial. Joe Carr, now 31, was released on $123,000 bond and is living with his mother in Conyers. The prosecution has appealed Russell’s ruling.