‘I just shot him.’ Murder suspect testifies in Columbus shooting over liquor bottle

A man on trial for murder took the witness stand Wednesday to explain why he shot his friend during a 2016 argument over a bottle of liquor.

Claiming self-defense in the shooting outside a birthday party in the 400 block of 17th Avenue, where the defendant and Kenneth Holloway Jr. fought over a $60 bottle of Hennessy cognac, Torrance Terrell Menefee said he feared for his life when Holloway pushed him twice and touched the gun Menefee had holstered on his left side.

“The gun moved. It felt like it was coming out of my holster,” Menefee testified. He pushed Holloway’s hand away, jumped backward, drew his .40-caliber Smith & Wesson and fired: “I shot him dead in the middle of his chest.”

Prosecutor Greg Winters pressed Menefee to explain why he felt threatened by an unarmed man.

“When he grabbed my gun, that’s the danger,” Menefee said, adding that Holloway’s brother Tremel Cobb and cousin Roderick Johnson also were present. “I was immediately in fear because I was outnumbered.”

After he shot Holloway, he went to his car, an old Lincoln, and left. Cobb and Johnson said he apologized for the shooting.

But Menefee said the apology was not out of regret. When he said “I’m sorry,” what he meant was, “I’m sorry it happened like that, but I’ve got to defend myself,” he testified.

He was the last witness in the trial likely to end with a verdict Thursday. Now 36, he’s charged with two counts of murder and one count each of aggravated assault and using a gun to commit a crime. He could face life in prison if convicted.

The day’s events

Menefee recounted what had happened earlier on June 18, 2016, before he shot Holloway around 10:15 p.m.

He said he was a foreman for a construction company and living in Opelika, Alabama, at the time, though he frequently visited the Columbus home of Holloway’s mother, Ruby Dee Cobb, who used to braid his hair for him.

He got off work around 2 p.m., and had about $1,000 cash, having just been paid, he said. When he got to the Cobb home, he found Holloway, Johnson, Tremel Cobb and others drinking in the backyard, and they decided to go for a drive in Menefee’s car.

They stopped at a liquor store to buy the cognac, and Menefee paid $50 while others chipped in the rest, he said. Then they went back to the Cobb house, and from there he, Holloway and Johnson went to a woman’s party on 17th Avenue.

Menefee had not eaten, and did not want to drink until he got some food, he said, but the party host did not know him and wouldn’t feed him. “She looked at me like I got 50 heads,” when he asked for food, he said. So he left, with the liquor, to get food from McDonald’s.

Holloway called him two or three times while he was gone, he said, and immediately wanted the Hennessy when Menefee returned to the party. Holloway got the bottle from Menefee’s car and walked off “talking crazy,” and that’s when he learned Holloway was upset, and had been talking about Menefee with the other relatives.

“They had been discussing me the whole time I was gone,” Menefee said. When Holloway returned with the bottle, Johnson took a swig and handed it to Menefee, but Holloway tried to grab it and “got very aggressive, got loud, got violent,” Menefee said, telling Winters, “There was a tug of war over the bottle.”

He said he tried to calm Holloway, saying, “Man, I got nothing but love for you, brother,” but it didn’t work. “This man would not stop,” he said.

Then Holloway threatened him, saying, “You’re back here with the real killers now. I’m going to take your s--t, man,” Menefee testified. Holloway first reached for Menefee’s cell phone, clipped to his waist on his right side, and then for the gun holstered on his left side, the suspect said, adding, “I just shot him.”

Tremel Cobb was trying to separate the two combatants, at the time, standing between them with his hands outstretched toward each. Cobb testified Tuesday that he could feel the heat as the bullet passed by, and then heard his brother curse.

Holloway, 25, was pronounced dead at 10:45 p.m. Though Menefee left the scene, he later surrendered to police, turning over the gun and his permit to carry a concealed weapon. Ballistics tests matched the gun to a cartridge casing police found at the scene.

Menefee’s defense attorney, Anthony Johnson, has not denied his client killed Holloway, but maintains Menefee was defending himself. “Sometimes you have to take a life to save one,” he told jurors in his opening statement.

He filed a motion asking Judge Bobby Peters to find that his client was immune from prosecution, under Georgia’s “stand your ground” law on self-defense, but Peters denied that motion after a court hearing this past Feb. 17.