Jimmie E. Gates
jgates@clarionledger.com
Eighteen year-old Darion Givens argued with, choked and threatened to kill 16-year-old Jim Hill High School student Falisha Miller only hours before he allegedly killed her, according to testimony from a Jackson Police Department detective.
Givens, of Jackson, who is charged with murder in the June 13 shooting death of Miller, had his preliminary hearing Monday in Hinds County Court.
Authorities said Miller was shot in the left side of the head at close range in the bathroom of a room at the Metro Inn motel on Ellis Avenue.
Detective Shawn Sims testified that witnesses told authorities Givens and Miller, who he was dating, and others had gone to Club Elite on Ellis Avenue and came back to the Metro Inn.
Witnesses said Givens and Miller had a verbal confrontation at the club about her dancing with another male youth.
At the Metro Inn, hours before Miller was shot, she and Given apparently had a physical altercation, Sims said, citing witness statements.
"He choked her and said he would kill her about going through his phone," Sims said, citing witness statements.
There is no eyewitness to the actual shooting, Sims said.
Miller, Givens, Givens' brother Charles, Jasper Bell and Miller's sister, Shaquida Wingard, had been together that night at the club and at the Metro Inn.
Wingard told police she was sleeping and woke up after hearing the gunshot. Wingard said she saw Darron Givens coming out of the bathroom with the weapon, which apparently belonged to Bell, according to Sims.
The shooting was reported to authorities about 7 a.m. on June 13.
Before police arrived, Charles Givens, 19, took Miller to Central Mississippi Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
Charles Givens hasn't been charged.
Motel owner Val Patel told The Clarion-Ledger after the shooting that the room, No. 234, was rented to Charles Givens, who often rented rooms there on the weekend.
Darion Givens' attorney, Hinds County Assistant Public Defender Alison Kelly, peppered Sims with questions about inconsistencies in witness statements.
Kelly said Bell told authorities he slept through the gunshot, but she wondered how that could be possible since a person in another room at the Metro Inn reported hearing a gunshot.
"No one says they saw Darion Givens shoot her?" Kelly asked Sims.
Sims replied, "I don't have an actual report that they saw Givens shoot the victim," Sims said.
Kelly asked Sims if a gunshot residue test was done on everyone in the room, including the victim. Sims said he didn't know if a gunshot residue test was done on the people in the room.
Kelly argued there wasn't evidence to send the case to a grand jury to decide if her client will be indicted.
County Judge William Barnett disagreed. He sent the case to a grand jury and set a $150,000 bond for Givens.
Meanwhile, Bell, 15, is charged with accessory after the fact in the slaying. Bell also is a suspect in the February robbery and shooting of Andrea Scott, a Jackson State University researcher.
Andrea Scott was shot twice in the back of the head in the parking lot of the John A. Peoples Jr. Science Building during an armed robbery. Police earlier arrested Randall Mason, 18, as one of three men who robbed her. Scott survived the shooting.
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