Two men en route for trial in 100-bullet homicide

Two men charged in a lethal shooting where 100 bullets were fired dispute evidence linking them to the homicide.

Their attorneys said security camera video and mobile phone data don’t show enough to bullseye their identities as suspects in the case.

Antonio Jones and Rashad Colon are accused of being two of the four men who gunned down and killed Shaheim Carr in July 2022 outside a home along West Philadelphia Street.

Investigators said the shooters fired nearly 100 bullets as three of them chased Carr from the sidewalk into a breezeway next to the house. At least one of the guns at an extended magazine drum.

The first suspect in the case, Jaquez Brown, was charged and arrested a few days after the shooting. He faces first-and-third degree murder counts. Jones and Colon were charged in April, each currently on a criminal homicide count. Police have not yet charged or publicly identified the fourth suspect.

Jones, 22, of Springettsbury Township, is also one of three men charged with homicide in a separate case from a shooting in 2018.

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He and Colon, 21, of York City, appeared before District Judge Joel Toluba on Wednesday for a preliminary hearing to decide whether their cases should advance up to county court for a possible trial.

Their attorneys argued no, they shouldn’t.

“There has been no identification that Mr. Colon was in fact responsible for this killing,” said Melanie Wiesman, Colon’s attorney.

She argued investigators had no physical evidence, that they only have circumstantial evidence linking him and the other suspects to the scene.

“There’s nothing physical other than guesswork done by police,” she said.

Jones’ attorney, Michael Diamondstein, also challenged security video and mobile phone data a detective testified to as insufficient.

“There’s no evidence that shows Antonio Jones committed this murder,” he said. “They didn’t bring it to this hearing, I would ask you not to hold my client.”

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York City Police Detective Frank Clark walked through highlights of the case as he testified during the hearing. He reiterated some of the details from Brown’s hearing last September.

Security camera video from the morning of July 6 showed Carr leaving a house on Philadelphia Street and walking down the stoop to the sidewalk.

Four men climb out of a gold Ford Fusion parked nearby and open fire. Three of them — who police identified as Brown, Jones and Colon — race across the street, firing their guns, while the fourth gets back into the driver’s seat.

Carr falls to the sidewalk, then gets up and runs into the breezeway while the three men follow, still firing.

A few seconds pass, and then the men run out of the breezeway and back to the car.

Investigators said they tracked the Ford with security video from across the city as it wound its way to Spring Garden Township. Brown was dropped off and was seen walking to a home in the 600 block of Wheatlyn Drive, police alleged.

He met up with Jones, Colon and another man at a local hotel nearly two hours later, police said, pointing to more security images.

The men had to turn around and leave because they couldn’t reserve a room with cash, police alleged, and they needed to pick up a credit card.

During that trip, investigators said Jones took a cellphone video in the car, showing Brown and another man as they drove near the shooting scene on West Philadelphia Street, according to charging documents.

The men later returned to the hotel, where charging documents show police used more video to identify Jones and Colon.

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The Ford Fusion, which had been reported stolen a couple of months before the shooting, was found parked at an apartment complex in Springettsbury Township.

Cleaning supplies were used to wipe physical evidence from the car, police said. But investigators said data from the car’s Bluetooth infotainment system created links to Jones, Brown and Colon’s mobile phones.

Detective Clark said he pulled the system from the car during the investigation, and he sent it with a warrant to an FBI lab to have the data analyzed.

“[Jones’] phone connected to the Ford Fusion the day of the homicide,” he testified.

Brown’s phone was also somehow associated with the Bluetooth system, police have said. Jones and Brown’s phones both had contacts with Colon’s number under his alias, they alleged.

Cellular data indicated Jones and Colon were in the area of the homicide scene at that time and later at the hotel, police said. Colon’s data also showed his phone moving with the Ford as it drove across town, according to charging documents.

Wiesman and Diamondstein both called out the security video at the shooting scene in their arguments. They said the men seen in the images wore masks and their full faces weren’t seen.

Clark said he’s familiar with Jones and Colon, and they have similar physical features as the men in the video.

But Colon wasn’t fully identified until after the shooting.

“It’s almost two hours later, and that’s the first time Rashad Colon is ever, ever seen,” Wiesman argued.

The attorneys also questioned the cellular data as too vague and broad to pinpoint Jones and Colon as being at the scene at the time of the shooting.

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Judge Toluba disagreed.

He found the evidence was sufficient enough to advance the cases up to the York County Court of Common Pleas ,where they could go before a jury for trial.

With the decision, Jones and Colon are now scheduled to be formally arraigned in the county court June 19.

Brown’s next hearing date is set for June 22.

Jones is also set to be back in court again next month to face another district judge in the other homicide case.

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He, Trayquan Robinson, 23, and Tyler Orr, 26, are each charged with criminal homicide and conspiracy charges related to the shooting death of Phillip Banks in May 2018.

Jones’ preliminary hearing in that case is scheduled for June 13.

— Reach Aimee Ambrose at aambrose@yorkdispatch.com or on Twitter at @aimee_TYD.