Home-invasion shooting suspects denied bond

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By MIKE MORRIS

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The two suspects charged with shooting a south Fulton County mother in the face were ordered held without bond Thursday.

Fulton County sheriff's department Donavin McCoy

Fulton County sheriff's department Antoine Wimes

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In a late-morning hearing at the county jail, Fulton Magistrate James Altman denied bond for 17-year-old Antoine Wimes and Donavin McCoy, 21, charged in the Monday night home invasion in the south Fulton city of Chattahoochee Hills.

Police said Wimes and McCoy attacked 22-year-old Nikki Neely, looking for money. Neely was shot in the face, and her 1-year-old son was beaten during the incident.

They are charged with two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated battery, cruelty to children, armed robbery and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

During Thursday’s hearing, McCoy asked the judge to explain one of the charges, but that was the only time either of the suspects spoke.

McCoy’s attorney told the judge that his client was not inside the home when the attacks took place.

Public defender John Habib asked Altman to reconsider granting bond for McCoy, telling Altman that McCoy’s involvement in the home invasion “was basically nothing.”

“He and Mr. Wimes were dropped off by some other individual and Mr. McCoy shook hands with Mr. Wimes and walked off to go home, and Mr. Wimes told Mr. McCoy, ‘this is where I live.’ Mr. McCoy walked off toward where he was going to go, Mr. Wimes goes in, the incident happens, and then he calls back to Mr. McCoy,” Habib said.

Altman told Habib that because of a warrant for armed robbery, he couldn’t set bond.

Altman scheduled a hearing for 9 a.m. Sept. 3 in Fulton Superior Court.

As Wimes was led from the courtroom, he looked back at his mother in the rear of the courtroom. She declined comment as she left the courtroom.

The two suspects were brought in separately, apparently due to orders to keep them apart – McCoy’s jail paperwork contained a notation, “keep separate from Wimes.”

Investigators believe McCoy and Wimes attacked Neely as part of a gang initiation the two men were participating in, Chattahoochee Hills Police Chief Damon Jones said.

Wimes’ sister is Neely’s best friend, police said.

Wimes was arrested in February and charged with murder in the July 13, 2008, shooting death of Etus “Obi” Onyemaechi, 48, of Clayton County.

Atlanta police said Wimes, then 16, shot Onyemaechi numerous times after walking into a Quick Stop Food Mart on Cascade Road and asking for a $5 T-shirt.

Wimes, who will be tried for the murder as an adult, was released from the Fulton County Jail on $250,000 bond in May on the condition that, among other things, he wear an ankle monitor and remain on 24-hour curfew at his mother’s Fairburn home.

Wimes’ family told police he cut off his ankle monitor early Monday morning.

After his arrest Tuesday night, Wimes shouted, “I own this world, like Scarface,” as he was taken into the Chattahoochee Hills police station.