Co-defendant’s testimony under scrutiny in Monroe murder case

FORSYTH -- The veracity of a co-defendant’s testimony was called into question Tuesday during the murder trial of 21-year-old Marquez Martin in Monroe County.

Sameeria Carter, 18, took the stand to outline the roles that she and Martin, along with Jordan Maxwell and Dave’von Sapp, played in the shooting deaths of James Wood and Russell Jacobs on May 7, 2013.

Members of Martin’s defense team were skeptical about the testimony after finding inconsistencies in Carter’s different accounts of events that night.

“It’s really hard to tell when she’s telling the truth because we’ve pinpointed six different times when she’s told six different stories,” said defense attorney Suesan Miller.

One of those accounts involved a letter that Carter wrote when she accepted a plea deal for her role in the incident. On the stand, she said that she lied at different points during the investigation because she was scared of going to prison for life and that she wrote the letter “trying not to get time.”

“I was sending my letter basically, like I said, (for) mercy and to apologize,” she said.

Carter got 10 years in prison as part of her deal.

Assistant District Attorney Lauren Deal challenged the defense team’s characterization of Carter’s varying stories. She asserted that Carter had consistently admitted having knowledge of the crime spree, which also included armed robbery in Macon, and told police where the stolen goods were.

“This leaves something out,” Deal said of the defense’s presentation.

Deal also outlined one conversation between Carter and her attorney. During that exchange, Carter said she revealed her involvement in the plot to rob Wood and Jacobs, whom the four people charged in the incident chose as targets while the two men were walking to a gas station from a broken-down truck on the north end of Riverside Drive.

“I told her about me talking to the victims at the store,” Carter said Tuesday.

The conversation was mostly small talk -- how late it was, how Carter didn’t look her age and how tall she was. Carter also told Wood and Jacobs the group was “out to get a lick,” or looking to make some money.

That statement was closer to Carter’s true purpose for being in the store, she recalled telling her attorney.

“Yes, I told her they sent me in to find out if they had money,” she said.

Deal also questioned Carter about the events surrounding the shooting itself, specifically how she perceived her co-defendants. As she and the three men ran to the car after looting the home, Carter admitted to being afraid of Maxwell, who pleaded guilty to pulling the trigger and killing both men.

When Deal asked if Carter was scared of anyone else, Carter answered in the affirmative.

“Were you scared of Marquez?”

“Yes.”

“On that night?”

Carter, who gave mostly brief answers during her testimony, wavered a bit before answering.

“A little bit,” she said.

Martin stopped a fight between Wood and Maxwell that night by pointing a gun at Wood, which gave Maxwell time to recover and re-assemble a gun that Wood had dismantled during the scuffle. The defense team claimed Monday that Maxwell told Martin to kill Wood, but Martin declined.

Defense attorney Zachary North followed up with Carter and asked why she hadn’t told police she was scared of Martin that night.

“They didn’t ask,” she said.

Monroe County sheriff’s deputy Kevin Powell also testified Tuesday about his role in responding to the incident. He said he was initially called about 8:30 a.m. the next day because the 1995 Ford Escort that Wood and Jacobs started out driving that night was in a ditch.

He went to the home at 170 Woods Road, where the two men had been killed at Wood’s house, but no one answered the door.

It wasn’t until he was called back to the home later that day that he learned that Wood’s father had discovered the two men dead on the living room floor.

“It appeared that people had been moving stuff around,” Powell said. “It was in disarray.”

Testimony is slated to continue late into the week.

“I think this case has come down to what’s in people’s head, what people thought, what people know,” North said.

Information from the Telegraph archives was used in this report. To contact writer Jeremy Timmerman, call 744-4331 or find him on Twitter@MTJTimm.

This story was originally published September 1, 2015 at 6:27 PM with the headline "Co-defendant’s testimony under scrutiny in Monroe murder case ."