CLINCH CO. – A jury handed down mixed verdicts Thursday in the trail of two men accused of fatally shooting a Morehouse College student at a Homerville nightclub in 2014.
Trevor Dennard Posley, Steven Maurice Monroe and Dexter Jamal Freeney, were arrested and charged in the days following the May 10 shooting of Clay Cross, 22, at the 912 Club on Reddick Street.
Freeney agreed to a plea deal in return for his testimony against Posley and Monroe. He is currently in prison.
Monroe was found guilty on all but five chares of the more than 40 he faced and will serve a life sentence plus 190 years in prison. Some of those charges were malice and felony murder, aggravated assault and possession of a fire arm during a crime., reports WALB.
Posley was found not guilty.
Cross had just completed four years at Morehouse when he came home to visit for Mother’s Day. He was a graduate of Clinch County High School.
At approximately 10:30 p.m. the night of the shooting, Cross stopped at the 912 Club to check on a possible gig working as a DJ. He left his best friend in a car and went inside the club, said Ronda Scott, Clay’s mother.
Minutes later, shots rang out inside the nightclub. Gang members fired a shot into the club at other gang members. Cross was struck and killed by a ricocheted bullet. Another man was injured by a bullet fragment. Cross was not the intended target of the shooters, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Scott believes the cause of her son’s death is embedded in deep-seated problems in the Pearidge Community in Clinch County, including gang activity. Some of the men charged in her son’s death were out on bond pending trial for previous offenses, according to sheriff’s office documents.
The club where the shooting took place has been the target of public nuisance lawsuits from the District Attorney’s Office. Complaints claim the club has been selling alcohol without a license for at least three years. The club’s former owner, Darryl Thomas, has been convicted three times for violations of beer and liquor laws, according to court documents.
