Police: Woman took killer to victim’s house
FATAL SHOOTINGS
An East Side woman charged with murder in the May 8 shooting death of 63- year- old Gerald S. Talley admitted that she drove a suspected gunman to the victim’s house on the Near East Side, Columbus police homicide investigators say in court documents.
But Monae A. Cox, 19 — who police say was a former girlfriend of one of Talley’s sons — also told police that Talley was not the intended target, a court affidavit states.
Whether her ex-boyfriend or someone else was the intended target of the two gunmen callers say shot into the Talley home on the 1000 block of Kelton Avenue is not indicated in the documents.
Detective Tim Welsh, a member of the Columbus police second- shift homicide squad, said Wednesday that investigators are trying to limit the amount of information made public at this point as they are still investigating the Talley homicide as well as the April 24 shooting death of Jeannot Mendy on the Far East Side. Welsh, who is in charge of the Mendy case, said police believe two other parties may have been involved in that murder.
Trevor Scott Sands, 21, whom police say is homeless, has been charged with two counts of murder in the homicides of Talley and Mendy.
On April 24, Mendy was fatally shot in a failed robbery attempt while he was working on a motorcycle in a garage on Lowridge Drive. Witnesses told police one of two men that walked up to Mendy shot him numerous times before the suspects ran off.
In the Talley homicide, callers told police that what looked like two men wearing black fired into his house, killing him. Police said witness interviews and investigation led to Sands’ identification as the suspect in what was a failed robbery attempt. Talley was a landlord who owned several homes in the neighborhood.
Cox admitted to Columbus investigators she drove Sands to the Talley house, and homicide investigators say they have forensics evidence that links Sands to the Talley and Mendy killings.
Gahanna police say Cox was again behind the wheel last Saturday as the getaway driver in the armed robbery of the Family Dollar store on Agler Road.
Gahanna Police Officer Timothy R. Swalley said in an affidavit that he was driving west on McCutcheon Road searching for the reported suspect vehicle in the armed robbery when a green Honda Civic passed him eastbound. Swalley turned his cruiser around to follow the Honda and caught up as it turned onto Sherwood Meadows Place.
“The vehicle appeared to be trying to avoid me and turned immediately into a driveway and began to back out,” Swalley reported. He pulled his cruiser in behind the car and saw three occupants inside. He drew his police pistol, ordered the occupants to raise their hands and radioed for backup.
Cox, the driver; Sands, the front- seat passenger, and the back seat passenger, Antwan Thomas, 18, of the Southeast Side, were all taken into custody. Sands and Thomas are charged with aggravated robbery and Cox is charged with complicity.
Sands left the passenger door open and Swalley saw “a large quantity of money stuffed in the storage pocket on the door” and a white plastic bag in the front seat area containing more money.
Police also recovered a black Batman hooded sweatshirt on the front seat where Sands sat and a red Spiderman-style hooded sweatshirt on the rear floor below where Thomas was sitting. A loaded .45- caliber, semi- automatic pistol and black bandana described as belonging to “one of the robbery suspects” was located. That weapon appears to have belonged to Sands as police said a loaded .22- caliber revolver was found under the driver’s seat in front of where Thomas was sitting and a single .22 round was found in Thomas’ pants.