LIMA — The jury trial of Marquavius Shurelds, the Lima man alleged to have taken part in an elaborate, organized scheme to rob a Lima couple in December 2018, proved unnecessary Monday morning after Shurelds entered an 11th-hour plea of no contest to four of the seven charges against him.
Shurelds, 29, of Lima, was indicted by a grand jury in February 2019 on three counts of kidnapping, three counts of felonious assault and one count of aggravated robbery. The kidnapping charges are first-degree felonies; the remaining counts are felonies of the second degree. All the charges included specifications for the use of a firearm during the commission of the crimes.
As part of a negotiated plea deal, prosecutors agreed to dismiss one of the kidnapping charges and one of the felonious assault counts and the specifications attached to those counts in exchange for Shurelds’ plea.
He will be sentenced Aug. 10. A pre-sentence investigation was ordered by the court.
According to court documents, Shurelds conspired with Kiarris Laws, 27, of Lima, on Dec. 2, 2018, to rob Dequaisha Wilson and Alonzo Williams in an apartment at The Village, a complex at 1510 Bradfield Drive in Lima. The woman reportedly was forced inside the apartment by Shurelds, had her head covered with a blanket and was told she would be killed if she did not cooperate.
Dequaisha Wilson told jurors during Laws’ trial 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.
Laws was sentenced to 54 years in prison in February after a jury found him guilty in guilty of one count of aggravated robbery with a firearm specification, two counts of kidnapping, and one count of having weapons under disability for the incident that took place at the Bradfield Drive location.
Shurelds still faces charges of discharging a firearm on or near a prohibited premise, a first-degree felony, and felonious assault with a five-year “drive-by shooting” specification and a three year firearm spec, a felony of the second degree. Shurelds is accused of attempting to cause physical harm to Xavier Scott by means of a deadly weapon in that incident.
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