Still no murder charges in 2010 slaying at Norfolk park

NORFOLK

On the day before Mother's Day 2010, Darren Gray and his girlfriend took their children to Lafayette Park. They decked out a pavilion in balloons and brought a cake for their infant son's birthday.

In the next pavilion, about a dozen men in white T-shirts, members of the Bloods gang, gathered for a business meeting, according to a prosecutor and court testimony.

When the men spotted Gray, one of them took a child from his father and handed him to his mother.

A circle formed around Gray, and they began yelling, punching, kicking and stomping. Someone swung a vodka bottle and crushed Gray's temple. He fell. Two men, prosecutors say, fired nine bullets into Gray.

Fifteen months later, no one has been charged with murder in a death that, according to court records, occurred in broad daylight, in a public park, near dozens of witnesses.

Few will speak and even fewer have agreed to testify. Prosecutors are left with a simple question that they know many could answer: Who killed Darren Gray?

Prosecutors presented testimony in court that 10 to 15 people joined in the beating and two fired the fatal shots. Four men have been charged with felonies for the mob beating: Lamar Corey, 27, of the 800 block of W. 27th St.; Rashand T. Jones, 27, of the 6300 block of Chesapeake Blvd.; Michael Mario Moore, 26, of Chesapeake; and Sentrell Copeland, 22, of Norfolk.

Roycinda Alexander, Gray's mother, wants the men who shot her 24-year-old son charged with murder. "He didn't have to die like that."

Authorities say the investigation has been slowed because witnesses fear gang reprisals. Norfolk prosecutor Asha Pandya argued successfully against bail this year for one defendant because, she told the court, "witnesses have been threatened, bottom line. It's coming from all the codefendants and their family members."

The "no snitching" mentality in some Norfolk communities and neighborhoods after a violent crime is not unusual, said Norfolk gang investigator Rich Creamer.

Creamer declined to speak specifically about the City Park slaying because the cases are still pending. But he said Norfolk police try to combat the reluctance to cooperate with good beat work - meeting regularly with community leaders, and protecting and developing good relationships with witnesses.

But in some cases, the intimidation stretches from the streets to the courthouse. "In those cases, you work with what you have."

Defense attorney Kenneth Singleton said he's seen murder cases drag on several years because witnesses were unwilling to come forward. By then, he said, information about the crime has circulated through the community. Jailhouse snitches use the information to help themselves or gain revenge, he said.

"You have to wonder about the veracity of what they're telling you," he said.

Singleton represents Moore and said his client is innocent.

A spokeswoman for Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney Gregory Underwood declined to comment because the cases remain active. Defense attorneys for the other defendants also declined to comment.

Darren Gray grew up in Park Place with the men who attacked him, according to interviews and testimony.

He was raised with his brothers and sisters in the neighborhood, Alexander said. She often took her children across Granby Street to Lafayette Park, also known as City Park, to play and for small carnivals. As he grew up, her son became persuasive and charming, especially with women, she said. He had five children he helped raise, and was close to his parents and siblings, she said.

Her son was not perfect, she said. He moved out of the house at 18, bucking rules imposed by his mother and stepfather, a career Navy sailor. Gray was sentenced to six months in jail for assaulting a police officer in Norfolk in 2004, according to court records. Still, he should never have suffered such a violent death, she said.

Pandya argued to a judge this year that Gray's death stemmed from a running argument about money and an attempted robbery. Gray either owed money or had disrespected the gang, she said. "It's not a matter of strangers," Pandya told a judge. "Everyone knows everyone."

The simmering dispute led to the fatal attack on May 8, 2010.

The four defendants are charged with felony malicious wounding by mob. Three are scheduled for trials in the coming months. One defendant, Sentrell Cope-land, pleaded guilty to the felony with the agreement he would receive no more than 10 years in prison. Copeland was tied to the scene by a DNA match from a water bottle cap, court records state.

In a stipulation of evidence filed with the court, Copeland acknowledged taking part in the attack and agreed to several details:

Gray, his girlfriend, Shanitra Kemp, and their infant son were celebrating the child's birthday with family and friends at a picnic shelter. Gray unloaded cups, plates and food from a car and placed the party supplies in the shelter.

Next to Gray's party, Copeland and a group of men were in another picnic area, according to the stipulation. The group approached Gray, took the infant and passed the child to his mother and began to beat Gray. Someone grabbed a glass Grey Goose vodka bottle from a table and struck Gray in the right side of the face, court records state.

Pandya told a court this year that Gray was shot repeatedly as he lay unconscious on the ground.

"All those involved in the beating, along with many other observers of the incident, then fled when police sirens were heard approaching," the written stipulation said.

A police officer testified that at least 30 people were fleeing the scene when he arrived.

Gray's cousin, Jamaal Dowling, testified at a preliminary hearing in March in General District Court held for the defendants.

Dowling told a judge that he saw about 15 men, wearing white T-shirts, jump his cousin. Dowling told the judge he was "110 percent" certain that a fifth defendant, Darius Jenkins, joined in the attack.

But prosecutors later dropped charges against Jenkins because he had a documented alibi - Jenkins was in a hospital recovering from gunshot wounds.

Dowling acknowledged in court that he spoke with police only after he was arrested in Chesapeake on unrelated charges. He witnessed the slaying but was reluctant to speak, he told the court. When asked why he didn't come forward earlier, he answered that he "didn't want to end up like my cousin and get murdered."

Roycinda Alexander said people packed into Park Place Baptist Church for her son's funeral last year. The family feared more confrontations and violence and hired security to guard the service.

She's certain people in her old neighborhood can answer the question of who killed her son.

"They know. I'm sure they know," she said. "But they're scared."

Louis Hansen, (757) 446-2341, louis.hansen@pilotonline.com