COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) — The Wilson Apartments gang and murder trial concluded its fourth day with the state getting to the heart of its case.
Roderick Glanton, along with brothers Terrance and Homer Upshaw are facing multiple murder and gang charges.
They are accused in the June 2021 shooting death of 18-year-old Saiveon Pugh and 17-year-old Jesse Ransom.
The core of that case, was a video taken as the shooting took place on a street at the edge Wilson Apartments. It taken from cameras that were part of a city surveillance system that was in place at Wilson Apartments, a public housing complex along Veterans Parkway near River Road.
The video is good quality, but you can’t identify any of the people in it.
At about 10 on the night of June 14, 2021, a grey sedan rides in front of a known drug house for the third time that evening.
Shots are fired from the area near the house. Two people in the car the driver Saiveon Pugh and the passenger on the rear driver’s side, Jesse Ransom, were killed in the hail of gunfire.
Lead prosecutor Cara Convery has called this an execution. Defense attorneys for Glanton and the Upshaw brothers are claiming self-defense. They argue the victims were on the verge of committing a drive-by shooting. A rifle was found on Pugh in the car. Masks were also discovered in the investigation.
The prosecution says that the four teenagers in the car were members of the Zohannon criminal street gang. The alleged shooters were members of a criminal street gang called Marlo that operated in Wilson Apartments.
Here is Homer Upshaw’s attorney William Kendrick couched it in questioning of Columbus Police Cpl. Justin Doll, who was on the scene the night of the shooting.
Kendrick: “In order to accomplish a drive-by, you need a car, correct?
Doll: “OK”
Kendrick: “You need guns, correct?”
Doll: “Correct.”
Kendrick: “All right? And a mask ain’t going to hurt either?”
Doll: “Correct.”
Kendrick: “And multiple driving past ain’t going to hurt either so you can see what’s going on?”
Doll: “Correct.”
Kendrick: “No further questions.”
The case resumes Friday morning. It is expected to run into next week.
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