Calhoun County judge to review testimony before bind over decision in drive-by shooting of 2-year-old

A Calhoun County District judge will take additional time to review testimony before deciding whether two teens will stand trial in the drive-by shooting death of 2-year-old Kai Turner.

Judge Paul Beardslee said Thursday he will make a determination in writing "in the near future" as to whether there is probable cause to believe that Martavon Nelson, 18, and Jaylen Smith, 17, killed Kai during the early morning hours of Sept. 20.

Nelson and Smith are charged with open murder, discharging a firearm from a vehicle causing death, discharging a firearm at a building causing death, carrying a concealed weapon and three counts of felony firearm in Kai's death.

Smith, a juvenile, is being charged as an adult in the case.

Beardslee heard from several members of the Battle Creek Police Department — including four officers, a detective and a lab supervisor — during nearly four hours of testimony that began Nov. 7 and resumed Thursday. Beardslee will ultimately determine if there is enough evidence for the case to proceed to trial.

Defense Attorney Lee Graham argued Thursday that "it would be an error" to bind Nelson over to Circuit Court on the current charges, and that doing so would open up the possibility for a jury to consider a first-degree murder charge, which requires the prosecution to prove premeditation.

"I think all of the testimony that you heard is this was a mistake," Graham said. "Whoever committed it, it was just a terrible, sad mistake that Kai Turner was killed. Whomever shot that bullet, it was a one in a billion shot that hit him, but he was not the intended target."

Nelson previously told Battle Creek Police Det. Brandin Huggett that he did not have a firearm during the Sept. 20 shooting. When confronted with the discovery of .40-caliber shell casings at the scene that had a "potential link" to casings recovered during a prior shooting he was involved in on Van Buren Street, Nelson told Huggett he sold the .40-caliber firearm to Smith the day after the Van Buren Street shooting.

"So six of the charges would require the court to have found some evidence over four hours of testimony, (evidence) that I certainly didn't hear, that Mr. Nelson was in possession of a firearm to commit any of these offenses," Graham said. "That didn’t happen. … We just can’t take a leap and say, 'Well maybe he had one and maybe things will be different at a potential trial.'"

Smith's defense attorney Kimberly Wickham echoed Graham's arguments, acknowledging that the court agreed anything Nelson may have told Huggett is not applicable to her client.

Wickham also pointed to Nelson's rocky relationship with Demetrius Johnson-Holmes, whom Nelson admitted he, Smith and an 18-year-old had been looking for during the early morning hours of Sept. 20.

"What we’ve heard is that Mr. Nelson had the issue with Demetrius Johnson-Holmes, had been the victim of a shooting by Mr. Johnson-Holmes, (Nelson’s) cousin in fact had also been shot, but conveniently what (Nelson) told Det. Huggett was that he did not possess a firearm that evening," Wickham said. "We heard Det. Huggett say that there is no previous link between my client and Demetrius Johnson-Holmes that would cause him to get in a car and go seek out Mr. Johnson-Holmes, so I don't believe we have enough for probable cause for my client."

Calhoun County Prosecutor David Gilbert acknowledged that proof of premeditation is not required during preliminary examination, "but it’s there, so make no mistake about it, at trial in this case we’re going to be asking for a (first-degree murder) conviction."

"This is a situation, your honor, where (Nelson) is telling officers, 'Well yeah, we’re going to go out and shoot at (Johnson-Holmes),'" Gilbert said. "Their whole idea was to shoot at Johnson-Holmes. That’s premeditation. They planned on killing him. … Just because they killed the wrong person doesn’t take away premeditation and deliberation. They murdered a small child who wasn’t even their target."

While Nelson told police he did not possess a gun at the time of the shooting, Gilbert argued that ballistics testing and Nelson's own testimony revealed that a gun he owned was used in the crime.

"The shell casings at the prior shooting (on Van Buren Street) are the same types of casings that are found at this shooting and (Nelson) admits that his gun was shot. He says, 'Oh I sold it to somebody else.' You don’t have to believe that," Gilbert said. "That's the whole thing here. His credibility is always at issue. His statement puts him in the car, they’re making phone calls to (Johnson-Holmes), they’re shooting from that vehicle, they’re shooting at a building and someone died so we’ve covered all of the elements."

Open murder includes first-degree murder, second-degree murder and manslaughter. If convicted of the more serious charge, Nelson and Smith face life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Contact reporter Greyson Steele at gsteele@battlecreekenquirer.com

This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: Calhoun County judge to review testimony in drive-by shooting of 2-year-old