Jago Times "English Edition" Best Online Newspaper
Related Articles
One man is in jail and another is at large nearly two months after police say the pair abducted a 27-year-old man and shot him, leaving him for dead in a Red Bird park and then returning to shoot him again.
/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-dmn.s3.amazonaws.com/public/JTGCCKKRHJGLPJ4QBNH6B4FHOQ.jpg)
Da’Kerrick Hamilton, 27, is charged with capital murder in connection with the death of Desjuan Holmes. Holmes was found shot to death Sept. 10 at Thurgood Marshall Park in the 1800 block of Ariel Drive, according to an arrest-warrant affidavit for another man wanted in Holmes’ death.
Police got a capital murder warrant for 27-year-old Michael Taylor last week, writing that he and Hamilton kidnapped Holmes at gunpoint Sept. 9 near the 11700 block of Ferguson Road in Far East Dallas, more than 20 miles from where his body was found.
Holmes died of gunshot wounds, the Dallas County medical examiner’s office confirmed. Public records indicate he was from Bastrop, La., but police listed a Garland address for him. He was buried in Bastrop on Sept. 21, according to an obituary.
Hamilton shot Holmes multiple times with a rifle, leaving behind .223-caliber cartridges, police wrote in the affidavit.
Then the men returned to the area where they had abducted Holmes and picked up another person, who was not named in the affidavit “for his protection,” police said.
Taylor and Hamilton asked the third person “if he wanted to see a dead body,” police wrote in the affidavit. He agreed, and they drove back to the park in Red Bird.
“The suspects shot Desjuan Holmes in the head after he was either already dead or on the brink of death,” the affidavit says.
Detectives later spoke with two witnesses — one who said he saw Taylor and Hamilton force Holmes into a car, and one who told detectives that Hamilton had acknowledged being involved in Holmes’ slaying.
The witness who told police that Hamilton confessed provided the detective with details that only the killers, detectives and medical examiner would know, according to the affidavit, including that Holmes had been shot again.
The witness said Hamilton told him that Taylor was present when Holmes was killed.
Police obtained cellphone records that placed Taylor near the crime scene minutes after Holmes was killed and also near the area where Holmes had been abducted, according to the affidavit.
Hamilton was booked into the Dallas County jail on Thursday on charges of capital murder and aggravated robbery. The offense date listed in online records for the robbery charge is Sept. 15, several days after Holmes was killed.
Court records show Hamilton pleaded guilty to two aggravated-assault charges in 2015 for shooting two people in the face with a shotgun. He received three-year and five-year prison sentences, which were set to be served concurrently.
Taylor pleaded guilty in 2015 to three charges: aggravated robbery, robbery and evading arrest. He received five-year prison sentences for each robbery charge and a 12-month state jail sentence, which were set to be served concurrently, court records show.