Wednesday, Nov. 04, 2009

Suspect fingers friend in fatal Coastal Carolina student shooting

A man charged with murder in the death of a Coastal Carolina University student identified his friend, Keion Griffin, as the person who fired the fatal shot that killed the 20-year-old last year during a fight in Myrtle Beach.

Griffin, 19, is charged with murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime in the May 25, 2008, fatal shooting of Corey Brooks.

Demario Stukes, who turned 19 on Tuesday and also is charged with murder, testified for the prosecution that Griffin had a gun and fired one shot into Brooks as he lay on the ground outside a home on Third Avenue North. Charges against Stukes are pending, and he told the jury that he agreed to testify Tuesday because "this is the right thing to do."

The incident began as Stukes, Griffin and Darius Priest, now 17, walked from the Landmark Hotel back toward their homes and saw a car with three girls inside trying to park outside the house, Stukes testified. Several men at the house told the girls they could not park there.

Stukes testified Griffin went up to the girls, who they knew, and told them it was OK to park there, and some of the other men, who were intoxicated, got upset. One of them said he was calling the police, but Griffin slapped that man's cell phone from his hand, then pulled out a gun, Stukes said.

At that time, Stukes said he began fighting with another man, and Brooks came and jumped on his back. Griffin hit Brooks in the back of the head with the gun and knocked Brooks and Stukes to the ground, Stukes testified.

"Mr. Brooks came to help his friends, and he came and jumped on my back," Stukes testified. "I knew Keion had the gun, so I'm trying to move, get out of the way. I didn't want no part of it."

Stukes said he got up and ran around the car that the girls still were in, leaving Brooks on the ground, and then he heard a single gunshot.

"After I heard the gunshot, it was like a big flee. Everybody was running so fast," Stukes said. He later told prosecutors he didn't feel his life was in danger during the fight. "It wasn't necessary at all, not one bit - not to the point where you have to shoot someone."

On Monday, Priest, who was charged as a juvenile at the time of the incident and is serving a juvenile sentence, recalled a similar description of events. Priest testified that he brought a .22-caliber pistol to Ocean Boulevard the night Brooks was killed, but said he gave the gun to Stukes. Before the night was over, Griffin ended up with the gun and used it to shoot Brooks, he said.

But on Tuesday, Stukes denied seeing the gun prior to the shooting that night.

Tony Allen, a Myrtle Beach police investigator on the case, testified that police found a hat with New York logos and the word "Stukes" written on it and later linked it back to Stukes through photos on a MySpace page. He said a school resource officer at Myrtle Beach High School also identified the hat as one belonging to Stukes, who testified he lost it in the fight.

Myrtle Beach police Lt. Deborah McCorkle testified she stopped the three teens as she was responding to the call of the shooting just before 4 a.m. because she saw them walking fast along Kings Highway at Sixth Avenue North, and they stood out in a "sea of black males in white T-shirts." At the time of the stop, witnesses had described the suspects as wearing white T-shirts.

McCorkle testified that when she did not find any weapons or see any injuries on Stukes or Griffin, she let them go and proceeded to the scene of the shooting. Priest was with the teens, but his mother arrived and picked him up before McCorkle questioned him, she testified.

James Galmore, one of Griffin's attorneys, objected to McCorkle's testimony and requested a mistrial after he said he did not receive a report she wrote later after the teens were charged about her encounter with them the night of the shooting.

Circuit Court Judge Larry Hyman denied the request and allowed Galmore to more extensively question McCorkle about her account.

Testimony will resume at 9:30 a.m. today, and officials expect to conclude the case.