Murder charge dropped against co-defendant in deadly 2012 shooting
Charges were dismissed against the co-defendant in a deadly 2012 central Lubbock robbery.
Terrence Shelby Jr., 31, who was one of two people charged with murder in connection with the shooting death of Travondrick LaShawn Ward, in the 1900 block of 66th Street, was released Friday from the Lubbock County Detention Center after his charge was dismissed Thursday.
He had been held there since July 17, 2019, jail records show.
Court documents indicate prosecutors dismissed the charge because of insufficient evidence.
The case hinged on testimony from witnesses who are serving lengthy prison sentences on other violent offenses and refuse to testify and wouldn't be compelled to do so, according to an official at the Lubbock County District Attorney's Office.
Shelby's co-defendant, 30-year-old Lester Patterson, was also initially charged with murder.
However, as part of a plea bargain with the Lubbock District Attorney's Office, that case was dismissed and Patterson pleaded guilty to a count of aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury in exchange for a 15-year prison sentence - five years less than the maximum.
He is currently serving his sentence at the Stevenson Unit in Cuero, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice records.
Patterson and Shelby were serving prison sentences on unrelated charges when investigators in 2017 obtained warrants for their arrest in connection with Ward's slaying.
Shelby was in the midst of an eight-year federal prison sentence at a high-security prison in Florence, Colorado. He pleaded guilty in February 2015 to being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.
Patterson was booked into the Lubbock County Jail in May 2018 after serving a five-year sentence at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Darrington Unit in Rosharon for aggravated robbery and possession of a controlled substance.
Lubbock police Detective Brandon Price, who inherited the homicide case in December 2016, said in 2017 he obtained information by the end of January that helped him identify Patterson and Shelby as Ward’s killers.
Among the witness he interviewed were two women who said they lied to the original investigators when they provided alibis for Shelby and Patterson. One of the women said she didn't realize until after she gave her statement that Ward, who is a relative, was the victim in the homicide.
According to the arrest warrant, Price and another detective spoke to Patterson at the Darrington Unit, who admitted that he and Shelby typically robbed drug dealers.
"I like to keep my ear open to the streets because I want to know who got it all," he told the detectives. "That's the whole plan going out trying to rob somebody. I don't just prey on the weak."
He said on the night of the shooting he and Shelby were outside Ward's home and Shelby approached Ward and a gunshot rang out.
However, Patterson's attorney, Jeff Nicholson said the plea deal he negotiated with his client did not include testifying against Shelby.
He said after reviewing the case against his client, he worked with the district attorney's office and negotiated a guilty plea to a charge that fit what he believed his client's actions were the night of the shooting.
Shelby's attorney, Nick Olguin, said his client is glad prosecutors decided to dismiss the charge against him.
"They never really did have any evidence on (Shelby)," he said.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Murder charge dismissed against suspect 2012 deadly Lubbock shooting
