Bond denied for two men accused in 2014 fatal Wings Cafe shootout

Bond was denied Tuesday for two men accused in the 2014 Wings Cafe shootout that left three men fatally shot and a woman injured.

Lawyers for Emmanuel McGhee, 28, and Master John Henry Brown, 24, argued in separate Bibb County Superior Court hearings that their clients had distanced themselves from gang activity and didn't shoot anyone inside the club.

Surveillance footage reportedly shows alleged members of two Macon street gangs, the Blacc Team and the Crips, fighting and exchanging gunfire at the now shuttered Bloomfield Drive nightclub, authorities have said.

Corey Hollingshed, 25, George Henley, 34, and Derrick Jackson, 38, were fatally shot. Nastajah Taylor, 23, was shot four times, but she survived.

A total 11 men have been charged in the Dec. 12, 2014, incident. No trial date has been announced.

McGhee's lawyer, Bernadette Crucilla, called her client's father and brother to testify during his hearing about McGhee's strong family and community ties.

Prosecutor Sandra Matson said recordings of phone calls will be played during the trial.

In a Jan. 28, 2015, call, two alleged gang members referred to the then-free McGhee as "Big" and said he is the "man now." McGhee, who was indicted in June, turned himself in to police.

In another call, placed May 13, 2015, McGhee talked about how he was glad he told a man he viewed as his little brother to stay out of the way before the shootout, Matson said.

She said video surveillance shows McGhee whispering in the man's ear before the man ran into the parking lot. He didn't go in the club with McGhee and the others.

"He knew what was going to happen before he walked in," Matson said of McGhee.

Crucilla argued McGhee didn't know what was going to happen.

Inside the club, McGhee -- who is charged with murder and a bevy of other charges -- didn't have a gun or shoot anyone, Crucilla said.

He came in smoking a cigar and was confronted by a another man who was "talking smack," she said.

McGhee threw his cigar and it hit the man in the chest, Crucilla said.

After some tussling, he left the bar, she said.

That's when the gunfire erupted.

Matson argued McGhee is just as responsible as the shooters for the deaths that night.

"Literally the spark that ignited the flame that night came from the fingers of Emmanuel McGhee," she said.

Ballistic evidence from the Wings Cafe shooting matches evidence from a shooting between the same groups from three years ago, Matson said. "It's an ongoing fight."

Brown's lawyer, Alan Wheeler, said his client has admitted throwing a chair during the melee as he's shown on surveillance video, but his involvement is much less than others charged in the incident.

Before his arrest, Brown was working at nightclubs, performing security and clean-up work, and other jobs, Wheeler said, "anything he could get to support his family."

Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report. To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744-4398 or find her on Twitter@awomackmacon.

This story was originally published December 22, 2015 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Bond denied for two men accused in 2014 fatal Wings Cafe shootout ."