He’s been previously given second chances. But not this time. A Fulton County judge denied bond Tuesday morning for Jayden Myrick, accused of robbing and killing a man who was leaving a wedding.
Myrick, who recently turned 18, was 17 when he allegedly shot Christian Broder near the private Capital City Club in north Atlanta on July 8, according to police. Broder, a Washington, D.C., restaurant executive who was in Atlanta for a wedding, was a husband and father of an infant. He died about two weeks later from his injuries.
A second suspect, 19-year-old Torrus Fleetwood, was also charged in the case. Fleetwood was the alleged getaway driver.
Broder and three others were waiting for an Uber after leaving a wedding reception. That’s when investigators say Myrick got out of a vehicle, pointed a gun at them and demanded their belongings. Broder followed Myrick, trying to negotiate, according to police reports, and Myrick pulled the trigger, shooting him in the stomach.
It wasn’t the first time Myrick had been in trouble. An investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution revealed the teenager had been granted leniency by a judge just four months before the shooting.
Myrick was “the big test case” for reforming juvenile offenders outside of adult prison, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Doris Downs told the teenager during a hearing on March 12, according to a transcript. Downs overruled a prosecutor’s insistence that Myrick was dangerous and a request to revoke his probation for an armed robbery he committed in 2015 at age 14.
In court Tuesday, a prosecutor said while Myrick was in prison, he beat someone so severely, he required staples in his forehead, Channel 2 Action News reported.
Many of Broder’s family members were in the courtroom for the bond hearing, but most were too shaken to speak. His father told the judge Myrick should be denied bond because he is a danger to society.
Myrick is scheduled to return to court Friday for a probable cause hearing.
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