LIMA — Jurors deliberated for three hours Wednesday before returning guilty verdicts against a 28-year-old Lima man who was part of an organized effort to rob and restrain Dequaisha Wilson and Alonzo Williams at gunpoint on the evening of Dec. 2, 2018.
The jury found Kiarris Laws guilty of one count of aggravated robbery with a firearm specification, a first-degree felony; two counts of kidnapping, first-degree felonies with firearm specifications; and one count of having weapons under disability for the incident that took place on Dec. 2, 2018, in Apartment 63 in “The Village,” a complex at 1510 Bradfield Drive in Lima.
Laws faces the possibility of decades behind bars when he is sentenced Jan. 27. The Lima man showed no emotion as the verdicts were read and smiled at family members as he was escorted from the courtroom.
Wilson testified in court Tuesday that she and her infant son were held at gunpoint by Laws and Marquavius Shurelds inside the apartment of Lamont Jones as her son’s father, Alonzo Williams, lie injured and bleeding on the floor in what was described as a drug deal gone awry.
Wilson said her intent that evening was simply to pick up some clothing for her son that Williams was to give her. They were to meet in a vehicle outside the apartment building, but upon arriving at the apartment complex Wilson told jurors, she was was “snatched up” by Shurelds and taken inside Jones’ apartment, where she was held against her will for several hours.
Inside the home, she said, she found Williams lying on the floor bleeding after allegedly being stabbed by one of the assailants. Wilson said Laws was “standing at the apartment door with a gun, pointing it at me and my son.” At one point later in the evening, Wilson testified, Laws said, “We might as well kill her; she’s gonna tell everybody” about the robbery that centered on drugs and money.
Wilson said she was allowed to leave later that evening and took Williams to a hospital in Van Wert, where she admitted giving hospital officials a fake name for her child’s father. She said she lied about Williams’ true identity because there was a warrant for his arrest in Allen County and because “I was told I would be killed if I told the truth” about where Williams was injured and how. “I was scared,” she told jurors. “I’m still scared.”
Jones testified on Tuesday that Laws “raised a gun and pointed it at Alonzo (Williams)” in an attempt to get information about drugs and money that Williams had access to and also pointed the gun at Wilson and her son inside the apartment that night.
The state wrapped up its case Wednesday morning with testimony from Lima Police Department Detective Steve Stechschulte, who said Wilson came to the police station a week after the incident and said she wanted to talk to a detective. She told Stechschulte details of the incident, including the names of the persons who were in the apartment that night. Stechschulte said information provided by Wilson “matched some information I had already received” from law enforcement officials in another jurisdiction and from other sources.
Based on Wilson’s statement, a search warrant was obtained and executed at the apartment in The Village and evidence was taken. The detective said “attempt to locate” and/or arrest warrants were issued for Laws, Shurelds, Jones and Williams. Laws was arrested the following day; Shurelds was picked up “a couple of weeks later,” Jones fled to Utah and was held for Lima authorities there in late September, and Williams was found about 20 days after the incident, the detective said.
Williams is currently serving a prison term and declined to participate with prosecutors in Laws’ case.
Defense Attorney Carroll Creighton had intended to call two witnesses Wednesday, but one of those was prohibited from taking the stand.
Modesti Laws, the defendant’s sister, testified that her brother had been with her at their aunt’s house on Richie Avenue all afternoon on the day of the alleged robbery. Creighton then intended to call Laws’ cousin, who was to testify that Wilson and Jones conspired to attempt to extort money from Wilson’s mother after the incident. Judge Jeffrey Reed blocked that testimony because of the defense attorney’s failure to provide proper advance notice to prosecutors and because the woman had been in court the previous day, in violation of the court’s order that potential witnesses be separated.
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