Family mourns Alabama man as three are sentenced in Columbus robbery, slaying

Travis Henry Jr. thought Columbus might be the place to start a new life, after the Montgomery, Alabama, man lost both his grandmother and mother.

“He wanted a new change, something new, to get past what he was going through,” an aunt said Friday in Muscogee Superior Court.

Instead the 22-year-old died here June 21, 2020, when he was shot at the intersection of 17th Avenue and Nina Street, where four people had schemed to rob him.

They took his BMW and left him face-down in the street, where neighbors noticed his body the next morning. and called police.

“My nephew didn’t deserve this,” his aunt Latoya Bell told Superior Court Judge John Martin in a sentencing hearing for three of the four people involved, lamenting how people “are always trying to take from you.”

She said Henry was friendly and trusting, and known for his smile. “Even after he buried his mama and grandmama, he still smiled every day,” she said.

Another aunt, Sylvia Rice, testified that Henry had been the family’s first male grandson. “He was our baby,” she said.

She said he was beloved by younger relatives who don’t understand that they’ll never see him again, and ask, “When’s Travis coming back?”

“How do you honestly answer that?” she asked. “We have no answers.”

The sentences

The three people Judge John Martin sentenced Friday pleaded guilty before testifying against triggerman Lydell Maynard “Trapa” Sparks, who in June was tried and convicted of felony murder, armed robbery and using a gun to commit a crime.

Sparks, 21, faces a maximum of life in prison without parole, in Henry’s case. He’s now in prison for a separate crime, will have to be brought back to Columbus to be sentenced, likely in September, attorneys said.

According to trial testimony, Sparks and his codefendants robbed and killed Henry after Terreona Horton and Kalaya Sumter flirted with the victim on Facebook, eventually enticing him to come to Columbus.

Besides Horton and Sumter, Wayman McMillian also pleaded guilty in Henry’s homicide, and testified against Sparks.

Here are their pleas and sentences:

• Sumter, 19, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison with six years to serve and the rest on probation.

• Horton pleaded guilty to armed robbery. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison with eight to serve and the rest on probation.

• McMillian, 27, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and being a convicted felon with a firearm. He was sentenced to 15 years with eight to serve and the rest on probation.

The scheme

Henry got to Columbus in his black BMW around 9 p.m., was shot sometime after 11:30 p.m., and was found dead about eight hours later. Police said they found a wad of money, a silver necklace and a cloth gun holster either on him or lying nearby.

Finding his Facebook exchanges with Horton and Sumter, investigators questioned the two women, who implicated Sparks and McMillian.

Upon taking the witness stand, none of Sparks’ cohorts admitted to planning a robbery. Horton and Sumter testified that Sparks on his own decided to rob and shoot Henry.

McMillian said he knew of no robbery scheme, and didn’t see the shooting, because it was too dark and he was too far away.

Detective Sherman Hayes testified that Horton and Sumter both detailed the robbery plan, under police questioning, and described the roles Sparks and McMillian played in it.

Hayes said Henry had attracted their notice because he posted Facebook photos showing he had money, fashionable clothes and nice cars.

Henry met the four at Whisperwood Apartments on Flat Rock Road, where Horton got into Henry’s BMW to go to the Chattahoochee RiverWalk downtown, with the others following in Horton’s Volkswagen Jetta, Hayes said.

They later left downtown and drove to Nina Street and 17th Avenue, near the Farley Homes housing complex, and parked there in the dark.

Hayes said Sumter told investigators McMillian got out of the Volkswagen and hid in the bushes as Sparks, holding a pistol, had Sumter walk in front of him as they approached the BMW, where Sparks pointed the gun at Henry as Horton got out.

“All I heard was Mr. Sparks say, ‘Give me everything you got,’” Sumter testified.

Hayes said Henry had a gun in the cloth holster at his waistband, so he likely reached for it as Sparks shot him across the upper torso,. then pulled him from the driver’s seat and drove the BMW to Phenix City, with the others following in the Volkswagen.

Sparks left the car at a spot Horton picked out on Brickyard Road in Phenix City, where she had relatives, and he wiped it down with a shirt before leaving in the Volkswagen with the others, the detective said.