IN SHORT: A possible sale of marijuana ended in one man being wounded and one murder Wednesday night.
By PEG KENYON
Leader staff writer
A shootout in a vehicle on the west parking lot at Jacksonville High School left a Cabot teen murdered and a Jacksonville man wounded Wednesday night.
Preliminary evidence leads police to believe it was a drug deal gone bad. “A large amount of marijuana was found at the scene,” said Lt. Martin Cass, assistant public information officer for Jacksonville Police Department.
Initially, police took two suspects into custody following the fatal shooting of Justin Davis, 18. Robert Cody Hall, 18, and Bret Michael Deangelis, 19, both of Cabot have been charged with one felony count each of capital murder, first-degree battery, aggravated robbery and conspiracy to possess a controlled substance. Neither had a bond initially listed.
“They were shooting at each other,” Cass said.
Deangelis allegedly admitted to being involved in a drug deal. He said the four of them met up at the high school along Linda Lane.
Four men were in a vehicle as the shootout began, Cass believes.
Three fled from the vehicle. Davis slid into the driver’s seat of a vehicle, al-though someone else had been originally behind the wheel, according to Cass.
“He then crashed into a retaining wall at the Linda Lane Apartments,” Cass said. “He got 100 to 150 yards away.”
At about 9:30 p.m., calls into the 911 Communications Center led local po-lice officers to the seriously wounded Cabot teen at the Linda Lane Apart-ment complex.
Davis was shot once in the chest and transported arrival, a white male was found lying on the ground with a possible gunshot wound.
A second victim who apparently had gunshot wounds to a hand and a knee went to Rebsamen Medical Center in Jacksonville. He was treated and later released, police said. The second victim was identified as 20-year-old Corzellis Neeley.
According to Cass, Neeley left the scene in another vehicle driven by a woman.
After going to a relative’s residence, Neeley ended up at the local hospital just before the ambulance arrived there with the mortally wounded Davis, Cass says. Deangelis alleges that there was a plan to rob Neeley who had brought the marijuana to sell to them. According to the police report, this resulted in a struggle between Davis and Neeley. Police recovered two 9-mm handguns from the vehicle.
This homicide marks Jacksonville’s third for the year.
