Trial is set to go on as planned in December against the three men charged in relation to the fatal shooting incident that occurred at the Princess Theater in 2021 following a hearing in Christian Circuit Court Thursday morning.
Zamarius Humphries and Jaquavion Spencer are both now facing charges of first-degree assault and possession of a handgun by a convicted felon—Spencer allegedly pulled a gun and shot Humphries in the neck outside of the Princess Theater, which caused Deovion Day to allegedly pull a gun and attempt to shoot Spencer. Instead, Aniyah Collins was fatally shot and Gteria Acree was injured.
Spencer is now represented by defense attorney Ramon McGee, who renewed motions to have Spencer tried separately from the other two, and to suppress a video from the evidence that will be shown at trial. McGee argues that Spencer would be unfairly connected to the murder charge, and that the chronology of events will be confusing to a jury.
He also pushed for a video that was allegedly recorded by Cortez Hairston Jr. where one of the defendants’ discussed details of the case via Snapchat, to not be allowed to be shown at trial. McGee contends that there’s no clear way to determine who the speaker is, or even if the video is about this particular event.
Ultimately, Judge Andrew Self denied both motions, saying he’s confident the parties involved can explain the situation clearly to a jury.
Deovion Day, who is charged with murder in the case, is represented by defense attorney Daniel Whitley, requested more information from the Commonwealth concerning expert witnesses who will testify at trial, and information on what sort of deal Hairston may or may not get for his information concerning the video.
Both Whitley and McGee told in the court they would be interested in holding a mediation in this case, to see if a resolution outside of trial would be possible. McGee says he also intends to argue for a bond modification on behalf of his client.
In the meantime, the case is set to go to trial on December 9, with another pretrial conference set to take place in November.