SUPERIOR COURT
Jones County jurors heard three days of testimony during the first week of a murder trial of three defendants accused in the 2017 shooting death of Marquis Hardwick.
The defendants in the case – Camaren Myles Banks, Justierrious Shyheim Canty and Jaqualan Desean Clark – are facing charges including malice murder, felony murder, armed robbery and burglary.
Superior Court Judge Alison Burleson is presiding over the case that started with two days of jury selection. The trial began Sept. 28 with opening statements by the attorneys before a filled courtroom.
The case is being prosecuted by Ocmulgee Circuit District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale and Assistant District Attorney Cara Fiore.
Banks is represented by defense attorney Melvin Raines II; Canty is represented by defense attorney Adrian Patrick; and Clark is represented by defense attorney Sarah Flack. The case is moving slowly because of the multiple attorneys who each have the opportunity to accept or object to each piece of evidence and cross examine each witness.
The order of the attorneys was approved pretrial, and the judge calls a cadence at each step starting with Raines, then Flack and Patrick or his co-counsel, Cedric Davis.
The opening statements of the attorneys were surprisedly brief.
Barksdale described the murder of Hardwick that took place Nov. 12, 2017, at Northside Villas Apartments in Gray and the laid out the state’s case of the involvement of each defendant.
The District Attorney stated that the offenders broke into the apartment by throwing a piece of concrete through the back door, and Hardwick was asleep in his bed when he was shot 24 times.
Raines’ remarks basically stated he disagreed with the state’s version of what happened, pointing out there was not a witness to the shooting. He said his client had no conflict with the victim.
Flack characterized the state’s case as hearsay and asked the jury to consider the defendants separately.
Patrick asked the jury to separate emotion from facts and to focus on the evidence. He also pitched the possibility of others who could have committed the crimes.
The state presented witnesses who had relationships with Hardwick, including friends, several cousins and more than one girlfriend. Witnesses were also called who were friends and acquaintances of the defendants.
Not all of them were glad to be in the courtroom.
Other state witnesses were Jones County Sheriff’s Office and Gray Police Department officers who responded the call the night of the murder and others investigating the case.
Interviews of witnesses were shown during the testimony of investigators.
During the testimony of JCSO Investigator Kenny Gleaton, jurors were shown pictures of the crime scene and the victim’s injuries. Shell casings and projectiles found at the scene were from two different weapons.
Investigator Clay Wiggins, who was previously the tech guru for JCSO, took the witness stand more than once to introduce data collected from the mobile phones of the defendants and Facebook page posts.
Barksdale and Fiore worked in tandem to put pieces of the puzzle to prove their case before the jury, and their plan is to continue to do so. The trial continued with the state’s case Monday.
When the state rests, it will be the defenses’ turn to present their case.
