Two Battle Creek teens to stand trial in drive-by killing of 2-year-old Kai Turner
BATTLE CREEK − Two Battle Creek teens have been ordered to stand trial in connection with the drive-by shooting death of 2-year-old Kai Turner, according to online court records.
After taking additional time to review testimony in the case, Calhoun County District Court Judge Paul Beardslee ruled Monday that there was probable cause to bind Martavon Nelson, 18, and Jaylen Smith, 17, over to Circuit Court for trial in the Sept. 20 shooting death of Kai.
Nelson and Smith are each charged with open murder, discharging a firearm from a vehicle causing death, discharging a firearm at a building causing death, carrying a concealed weapon and three counts of felony firearm in Kai's death.
The 2-year-old suffered a single gunshot wound to the head in the early morning hours of Sept. 20 while sleeping inside his family's Cliff Street apartment. He later died at the hospital from his injuries.
Smith, a juvenile, is being charged as an adult in the case.
Investigators have repeatedly indicated Kai and his family were not the intended target in the shooting, and said the intended target was believed to be living in a separate apartment inside the building.
Beardslee heard from several members of the Battle Creek Police Department — including four officers, a detective and a lab supervisor — during nearly four hours of testimony that began Nov. 7 and resumed Dec. 8.
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Defense Attorney Lee Graham argued Dec. 8 that "it would be an error" to bind Nelson over to Circuit Court on the current charges and that doing so would open up the possibility for a jury to consider a first-degree murder charge, which requires the prosecution to prove premeditation.
"I think all of the testimony that you heard is this was a mistake," Graham said. "Whoever committed it, it was just a terrible, sad mistake that Kai Turner was killed. Whomever shot that bullet, it was a one in a billion shot that hit him, but he was not the intended target."
Nelson previously told Battle Creek Police Det. Brandin Huggett that he did not have a firearm during the Sept. 20 shooting. When confronted with the discovery of .40-caliber shell casings at the scene that had a "potential link" to casings recovered during a prior shooting he was involved in on Van Buren Street, Nelson told Huggett he sold the .40-caliber firearm to Smith the day after the Van Buren Street shooting.
Smith's defense attorney Kimberly Wickham echoed Graham's arguments, acknowledging that the court agreed anything Nelson may have told Huggett is not applicable to her client. Wickham also pointed to Nelson's rocky relationship with Demetrius Johnson-Holmes, whom Nelson admitted he, Smith and an 18-year-old had been looking for during the early morning hours of Sept. 20.
"What we’ve heard is that Mr. Nelson had the issue with Demetrius Johnson-Holmes, had been the victim of a shooting by Mr. Johnson-Holmes, (Nelson’s) cousin in fact had also been shot, but conveniently what (Nelson) told Det. Huggett was that he did not possess a firearm that evening," Wickham said Dec. 8. "We heard Det. Huggett say that there is no previous link between my client and Demetrius Johnson-Holmes that would cause him to get in a car and go seek out Mr. Johnson-Holmes, so I don't believe we have enough for probable cause for my client."
Calhoun County Prosecutor David Gilbert acknowledged that proof of premeditation is not required during preliminary examination, "but it’s there, so make no mistake about it, at trial in this case we’re going to be asking for a (first-degree murder) conviction."
"This is a situation, your honor, where (Nelson) is telling officers, 'Well, yeah, we’re going to go out and shoot at (Johnson-Holmes),'" Gilbert told Beardslee on Dec. 8. "Their whole idea was to shoot at Johnson-Holmes. That’s premeditation. They planned on killing him. … Just because they killed the wrong person doesn’t take away premeditation and deliberation. They murdered a small child who wasn’t even their target."
While Nelson told police he did not possess a gun at the time of the shooting, Gilbert argued that ballistics testing and Nelson's own testimony revealed a gun he owned was used in the crime.
"The shell casings at the prior shooting (on Van Buren Street) are the same types of casings that are found at this shooting and (Nelson) admits that his gun was shot. He says, 'Oh I sold it to somebody else.' You don’t have to believe that," Gilbert said. "That's the whole thing here. His credibility is always at issue. His statement puts him in the car, they’re making phone calls to (Johnson-Holmes), they’re shooting from that vehicle, they’re shooting at a building and someone died so we’ve covered all of the elements."
Open murder includes first-degree murder, second-degree murder and manslaughter. If convicted of the more serious charge, Nelson and Smith face life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Contact reporter Greyson Steele at gsteele@battlecreekenquirer.com
This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: Two Battle Creek teens to stand trial in fatal shooting of 2-year-old Kai Turner
