Jailed witness recounts failed robbery, shooting that killed Columbus rapper

One of the four people accused of killing a Columbus rapper during a botched robbery in 2019 spent hours on the witness stand Friday recounting the robbery scheme and the fatal midtown shooting that followed.

Christian Desean Patrick is the only suspect whose charges are to be dismissed in the death of Jaylin Jaquan “Bart” Williams, as two others have pleaded guilty and the fourth, Jordan Jamal Seldon, 24, is on trial for murder, aggravated assault and using a gun to commit a crime.

Prosecutor Lewis Lamb has said he agreed to dismiss Patrick’s charges because the 25-year-old’s testimony is crucial to the case against Seldon. Though he’s to be freed, Patrick so far remains in the Muscogee County Jail.

Patrick was among the last witnesses, as closing arguments in the case are expected Monday.

Besides Patrick and Seldon, Gerald Wayne Reed III and his then-girlfriend Anna Elizabeth Stecenko were accused in Williams’ homicide, but they have pleaded guilty to lesser charges.

Stecenko, 24, testified Thursday that her only role in the crime was to help Reed hide the gun, as she refused to join in the robbery scheme.

She pleaded guilty only to tampering with evidence, and faces 10 years in prison with six to serve.

The scheme

Patrick testified that he learned of a plan to rob Williams when he and Seldon were hanging out at a Schatulga Road residence he described as a “gambling house” where people often gathered to socialize. Stecenko dropped Reed off there on Aug. 1, 2019, to meet him and Seldon, he said.

“Gerald Reed came to the house and told us he had a lick,” Patrick said, explaining that “hit a lick” is street slang for committing a robbery.

They took Patrick’s Hyundai Accent to the neighborhood where Williams lived on Wallace Drive, first parking on Melrose Drive, where they could watch Williams’ home, then moving to East Lindsey Drive, which Patrick described as a “back street.”

He said Reed had told his accomplices that Stecenko would lure Williams from the house to be robbed, but she refused to join them. So they waited for Williams to come outside, with Reed carrying a Glock .45-caliber pistol and Seldon a black 9-millimeter, he said.

Patrick said he was not armed, as his role was to take any valuables Williams had as Seldon and Reed held the victim at gunpoint.

When they saw Williams on his porch, around 11 p.m., they approached the house from the side, with Reed going first and Seldon second, Patrick said.

“I never went,” he said. “I waited on them to go first.”

Williams also was armed, with a 9-millimeter pistol, and an exchange of gunfire ensued.

Patrick did not wait to see what happened, he said.

“After I heard gunshots, I got up and took off running,” he testified.

He and Seldon ran back to the car, while Reed ran in another direction, he said. They did not await his return, and drove back to the house on Schatulga Road, where Patrick dropped Seldon off and went home, he testified.

None of the would-be robbers was wounded, but Williams was hit at least twice by 9-millimeter bullets, one penetrating his heart, a medical examiner testified. The 21-year-old bled to death, she said.

The prosecutor has said Seldon had to have fired the fatal shots, because Patrick testified that Seldon was the only suspect with a 9-millimeter.

But Patrick did not testify that he saw Seldon shoot Williams. “Jordan just stated that someone got hit,” he said.

The aftermath

Police said they learned of the robbery scheme after questioning Reed, who was found wandering the neighborhood that rainy night without his shoes, having lost them when he ran away.

Having left his cell phone in Patrick’s car, Reed hid his gun and a camouflage jacket in a vacant house, and went around knocking on doors, asking to use a phone, investigators said. Officers picked him up after the neighbors called police.

They did not arrest him right away, however, and later released him at Stecenko’s home on Fairview Drive.

Stecenko testified Thursday that she and Reed then returned to the Wallace Drive area to get Reed’s jacket and gun, and took the pistol to her mother’s home in Harris County, where they disassembled and buried parts of it.

She later told police where to find that evidence, and police recovered the weapon, matching it to some bullet casings found at the scene. They did not find the 9-millimeter that Seldon allegedly used.

Like Seldon, Patrick also was charged with murder, aggravated assault and using a gun to commit a crime, before his defense attorney Angela Dillon struck a deal to have those charges dismissed, in exchange for his testimony. He has spent four years in jail awaiting trial.

Like Stecenko, Reed also pleaded guilty in May 2022. The 25-year-old faces up to 25 years in prison on charges of aggravated assault and using a gun to commit a felony.

Neither Reed nor Stecenko will be sentenced until the trial ends. All their other charges will be dropped, authorities said.

If convicted, Seldon faces life in prison. The 24-year-old has claimed he did not participate in the robbery and shooting and wasn’t there at the time.

Lamb, the district attorney in Americus, Georgia, was assigned the case because Columbus District Attorney Stacey Jackson in his previous private practice represented Patrick, presenting a conflict of interest.