A Fulton County prosecutor said Wednesday that Antoine Wimes killed a Nigerian immigrant over a $5 T-shirt, but his lawyer says the then 16-year-old Wimes was across town at a family party when the killing took place.
Those were the central themes opposing attorneys offered in their opening statements in the murder trial of Wimes, who also is accused of shooting and wounding a family friend and slamming her 1-year-old son against a wall because he wanted cash to get out of town. He will be tried on those charges next month.
“He’s a brother. He’s a friend. He’s a son,” defense attorney Ash Joshe said.
Prosecutor Clint Rucker countered with a harsher description of Wimes as a young man who was cold and heartless and, for a while, protected from police by neighborhood people who refused to name him.
Etus “Obi” Onyemaechi, 48, was 30 minutes away from closing up the Quick Stop Food Mart on Cascade Road in southwest Atlanta when Wimes allegedly came in to buy an oversize t-shirt. Onyemaechi, with a gun in a shoulder holster, came from the behind the counter that was encased in bulletproof glass to hand over the shirt and was shot three times -- in the chest, the stomach and the back.
“A senseless tragedy occurred on the morning of early July 13, 2008,” Joshe said. “He [Onyemaechi] was doing nothing but his job. He was working and for no apparent reason he was shot and killed.”
But at that time, Joshe said, “Mr.Wimes was at home” and could not have killed Onyemaechi.
Onyemaechi had been in the United States about 12 years. Though he had two masters degrees, including one in math, his only job was working for a friend and fellow Nigerian behind the counter of a convenience store.
Rucker said a man – who lived on the street but regularly swept and mopped the store floors for a few dollars – saw the shooting but refused for several months to give police a name to go with the physical description he did provide. The man, Elliott Glass, who was known by the name Puddin’, eventually identified Wimes, Rucker said. When Glass testifies, he will have to be brought over from the Fulton County Jail, Rucker said without explaining the reason Glass was in custody.
Fulton County jail records show Glass has been charged with aggravated assault and battery and is being held on $250,000 bond on the 2009 charges.
Many of the witnesses expected to be called in the next few days also have had “encounters with the criminal justice system,” and some of them are currently in jail, both lawyers said. Virtually all of them were known only by nicknames like “Black,” “Dirt Red,” Do-Do” and “Meat,” and none of them would help police with a name initially.
It was several months later that one of Wimes’ friends came forward, under pressure from his father, to say Wimes had bragged about killing Onyemaechi, Rucker said.
Rucker said there was no physical evidence – no blood or fingerprints – and a weapon was not found but there were many witnesses.
Wimes was arrested in March 2009 and charged with murder and armed robbery. But a few weeks later he was released on a $250,000 bond and ordered to wear an ankle monitor that would supposedly send an alert if he left his house at a time that was not approved or if he removed it. The judge who set the bond noted that Wimes was then only 17 and did not have a criminal history.
In August 2009, Wimes allegedly cut off the monitor, called a friend for a ride and went to the Chattahoochee Hills house of a family friend in search of money so he could flee to Alabama, Rucker said.
The friend providing the ride was unaware of Wimes’ plan when he drove him to the home of a friend of his mothers. “Nikki” Neely, Wimes’ sister’s best friend, opened the door; the 22-year-old mother and her baby were the only people in the house.
Moments later she was shot when she declined to give Wimes money but turned to get him a glass of water, Rucker said; her baby boy was severely beaten. Neely and her son recovered, though the bullet is still lodged against Neely’s spine.
Rucker said details of the attack on Neely will be provided in this week's trial.
Joshe said the details of the Neely attack “will be graphic” and the crime was “wrong. It’s not a part of this case.”
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