20-year-old Milwaukee man accused of burning a car with the body of a man he shot in it
A 20-year-old Milwaukee man is facing five felonies after being accused of shooting a man and later setting fire to a minivan with the body inside.
Daeshaun Graves is facing first-degree homicide, two counts of bail jumping, arson and mutilating a corpse in connection to an Aug. 4 incident in which he allegedly got into a fight and shot 31-year-old Quincy Smith after Smith found his on-and-off girlfriend in a minivan with Graves.
Graves was released on bond in two other felony cases at the time of this incident, according to court records.
One case involved armed robbery and taking and driving someone’s vehicle without permission. The other case was for felony bail jumping after receiving a misdemeanor for obstructing or resisting a police officer.
Graves is currently in Milwaukee County Jail and has a bail of $500,000. His next court appearance is Aug. 21 for a preliminary hearing.
According to the criminal complaint:
Milwaukee police officers and detectives responded to a reported shooting at 11:30 p.m. at 5844 N. 84th St. and upon arrival found a witness, named IC in the complaint, crying after she “witnessed a homicide.”
A detective interviewed IC who said she saw Graves shoot the Smith, who is referred to as QOS in the complaint, in the head. IC explained to the detective that Smith was her "long-term, on again, off again, boyfriend" and the two shared a child together. At the time of the incident, the two were on a break from dating, but lived together, IC told police.
IC met the defendant Graves a few days prior and the two exchanged phone numbers. On the morning of August 4, Graves picked her up and they spent most of the day together, including attending a barbecue in the evening.
During the barbecue, the two were asked to move Graves’ cars — a minivan and a sedan — so other guests could leave. The two then drove them to IC’s house and parked out front. Once they arrived, the two slept in the minivan in separate rows, but were later awakened by the victim Smith confronting them.
IC told police Smith and Graves got into a physical fight in the minivan and she attempted to stop it. As it ensued, the two moved just outside of the rear passenger sliding door of the minivan and IC said she saw Graves draw a gun and fire it once into Smith's head.
Graves then got into the driver’s seat and drove the minivan away northbound on North 84th Street.
Later that night, at 12:25 a.m., police responded to a vehicle fire at 3629 N. 34th St., with fire department officials already on scene extinguishing it. The police officer noted there were human remains in the vehicle.
Police later determined the burnt minivan had been stolen from a man on Aug. 4.
The burnt body, identified as Smith's, was found to have a gunshot wound to the top left portion of its head and 3rd degree burns over 95% of its body, the complaint said.
On Aug. 7, police went to 6304 N. 91st St. to arrest Graves, where they found him with burn injuries on his arms, wrapped in gauze. At the scene was another woman, identified as JG, who said she was Graves’ girlfriend.
The woman told police she had rented an AirBnB to hide Graves out, had bought him medicine and skipped work to take care of him. JG said Graves reached out to her on Aug. 5 and didn’t admit to her what had happened, only telling her “something bad happened.”
However, JG said she overheard Graves on the phone speaking with someone and telling them “he had shot a man, drove off with the body in a car and then set the car on fire.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 20-year-old allegedly shot a man, burnt body inside of minivan
