Posted on 08/23/2013 5:29:47 AM PDT by from occupied ga
The accused accomplice to the Brunswick teen on trial for fatally shooting a 13-month-old between the eyes admitted on the stand Thursday he told “at least” 16 lies to police and family about what transpired that morning.
Dominique Lang, just 14 when the shooting occurred March 21, testified Glynn County police “pushed” him to say that he witnessed De’Marquise Elkins fire the bullet that killed Antonio Santiago. But the baby-faced 8th grader insisted Elkins was the killer, testifying he witnessed him count down from 5, gun pointed at the stroller, before firing the deadly bullet.
Elkins, 18, is charged with malice murder, felony murder, child cruelty, attempted armed robbery and multiple counts of aggravated assault in connection to the March 21 shooting. His mother, Karimah Elkins, is also on trial in Cobb County Superior Court for lying to police and attempting to hide the .22-caliber handgun used in the crime.
Lang testified that Elkins fired three bullets, aiming the first at the ground as he tried to get Antonio’s mother, Sherry West, to hand over her purse. She refused, and he shot her in the leg. Then, said Lang, he aimed the gun at Antonio.
“The baby was in the stroller screaming,” he said. Lang, now 15, is also charged with murder though no trial date has been set.
Elkins, Lang and West are the only people identified as eyewitnesses to the shooting. The defense argued Lang shouldn’t be believed.
“After police told you it was your last chance to tell the truth, you lied again,” defense attorney Jonathan Lockwood asked Lang, referring to his March 22 interview. Lang stared down the public defender before answering, “Yes.”
Even Glynn County police had their doubts, saying “eight of 10 statements (made by Lang) have been a freaking lie,” according to Karimah Elkins’ defense attorney Wrix McIlvaine.
Lang attempted to explain the discrepancies, saying he misled police because, “I was afraid they were going to get me for something I didn’t do.”
The defense argued Thursday that Lang continues to lie, alleging he made a deal with the state and tailored his testimony accordingly.
“Ain’t no deal or no promise,” said Lang, who became increasingly recalcitrant under tough questioning from the defense, refusing on more than one occasion to answer.
Lang, appearing in shackles, was preceded on the stand by his cousin, also 15. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is not publishing his name because he is a minor and has not been charged with any crime. Dominique Lang is being tried as an adult, as is Elkins, who was 17 at the time of the shooting.
Lang’s cousin also acknowledged his story has changed in the months since the crime. On Wednesday, he testified he saw Dominique and Elkins together at his grandmother’s house following the shooting.
Defense attorney Kevin Gough said Thursday that Lang’s cousin should have been considered the primary suspect all along.
Under questioning by McIlvaine, Lang testified his cousin wasn’t present when Antonio was killed — “Not before the crime, not during the crime,” he said.
The complicated case was moved to Cobb, 300 miles from Brunswick, following the subsequent arrests and extensive publicity that has divided people in the coastal town along racial and economic lines.
The prosecution said it is unlikely to conclude its case until Monday at the earliest. West is expected to be among the prosecution’s final witnesses.
“The complicated case was moved to Cobb, 300 miles from Brunswick, following the subsequent arrests and extensive publicity that has divided people in the coastal town along racial and economic lines”
Seriously? Shoot a 13 month old baby in the face and there’s division among the community? That, my FRiend, is a tell that this nation is coming apart.
With most blacks race is the only thing that matters. Doesn't matter that he shot a toddle in the face and killed him. The toddly was white, so of no consequence. Look at waht his POS mother, sister and aunt did - lied to alibi him and helped him get rid of the murder weapon. OH and BTW it's my understanding that De'Marquis boy is a banger from Atlanta who was sent to Brunswick because he was getting in too much trouble in Atlanta.
He probably practiced ahead of time.
This incident happened only 15 miles from the little coastal fishing village where I retired. Local media covered the story as far as Savannah. I found that my friends in Los Angeles and Seattle had no knowledge of this incident because the national media avoided it. There was a reason for this, but it wasn't all that stuff in Florida. What the media fears is something that will set back race relations to the way things were before the Sixties, especially in the South.
Had this incident occurred as recently as the 1920's, the fathers of Brunswick would have donned their sheets and pointy hats, marched by torchlight to the police station, taken the suspects to a bridge or live oak, and lynched them. The bodies would have been burned.
Then the fathers would have taken those torches to the Brunswick ghetto and burned it to the ground, an action reminiscent of Tulsa (1921) and Rosewood FL (1923).
It is precisely this that the media wishes to avoid. They call it "being a responsible steward of the press and public airwaves." Bottom line: They fear what would happen to race relations if white folks got really riled up. There is an ancestral memory of Jim Crow and summary justice in the South, and people here are wary of it.
[The accused accomplice to the Brunswick teen on trial for fatally shooting a 13-month-old between the eyes admitted on the stand Thursday he told “at least” 16 lies to police and family about what transpired that morning.]
Not only that, but this was nothing new. He’d been lying to the police and his family since he started to speak.
As recently? Nearly a hundred years ago.
You must have a different type of cracker than we have here in N Georgia, because I can tell you no "fathers' would be marching around here. Your town must have missed the white guilt epidemic.
People here where I live, in the "most racist county in America," bend over backwards to show how non-racist they are.
[The accused accomplice to the Brunswick teen on trial for fatally shooting a 13-month-old between the eyes admitted on the stand Thursday he told “at least” 16 lies to police and family about what transpired that morning.]
Not only that, but this was nothing new. He’d been lying to the police and his family since he started to speak.
I’m so old that a century ago doesn’t seem that far back.
Holy crap!! You really believe this? I absolutely don't agree with your viewpoint. If they were worried about race relationships they wouldn't have made the Zimmermann episode the most hammered news story of the year. Sorry good FRiend, but I think you're FOS.
But getting white folks all riled up is dangerous because it can lead to more oppression and social injustice.
You need to put yourself into the minds of the people in the Mainstream Media.
We’re just going to continue to disagree.
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