Two men bound over for trial in motorist’s shooting death
Victim shot July 23 in parking lot, crashed into building
Two men charged with the July 23 shooting death of a 28-year-old man lured to a southwest Topeka parking lot won’t face trial on premeditated first-degree murder, a judge ruled Tuesday in Shawnee County District Court.
But, District Judge David Debenham said, defendants Use David Laeli Jr., 35, of Topeka, and Joseph G. Cooney, 20, of Rock Port, Texas, will be tried on charges of felony first-degree murder in the shooting death of Xavier Patrick McCollough, 28, of Topeka, and attempted aggravated robbery.
Laeli also will be tried on a felony charge of interference with law enforcement after he allegedly ordered disposal of the pistol used to shoot McCollough, Debenham said.
Based on evidence presented during the preliminary hearing on Monday of Laeli and Cooney, Debenham said, the men, co-defendant Shane Edward Sibert and Sibert’s girlfriend, Carissa Williams, didn’t discuss harming or killing McCollough, so there was no inference of premeditated murder.
The prosecution didn’t meet its burden to show evidence of the premeditated murder count, Debenham said. The murder counts were alternative charges for McCollough’s death.
Williams was a witness in the case.
Evidence supports finding the three defendants and the witness wanted to retrieve Laeli’s car, which he had loaned to McCollough. The car either was owned by Laeli or was a stolen vehicle, according to testimony.
Even if Laeli owned the car, he could only use peaceful means to get it back, the judge said, but Laeli provided a semiautomatic pistol to Sibert to assist in getting the car back.
As for Cooney, he was driving a car the three men and Williams were riding in and was aware of texts being sent between Williams and McCollough to lure him to Williams’ apartment, where the three men waited, the judge said. Cooney also pulled into the driveway to a parking lot near S.W. 34th and Gage to block McCollough from driving out, the judge said.
McCollough was fatally shot in the parking lot, then drove out of the lot before crashing into the corner of an apartment building at 3401 S.W. Gage. Debenham said probable cause existed for the felony murder charge against Laeli and Cooney on a theory of aiding and abetting in the slaying.
Laeli and Cooney will be arraigned on Dec. 14 before Debenham.
On Monday, Williams testified that Sibert heard Williams say she could lure McCollough to her southwest Topeka apartment, then Sibert instructed her to text McCollough.
When McCollough arrived at her apartment’s parking lot, Sibert instructed Williams, 20, to remain in her apartment, then went outside. Williams soon heard a gunshot, and she thought Sibert had shot McCollough with a small black handgun earlier given to him by Laeli, Williams testified.
Sibert’s preliminary hearing will be Dec. 21.
As of Tuesday, Sibert, 24, of Topeka, is charged with premeditated first-degree murder in the death of McCollough.
Sibert, also known as “Scrappy,” also is charged with criminal possession of a firearm by a felon linked to an earlier felony conviction, court records said. Criminal possession of a firearm is a felony.
Topeka police began investigating the slaying when McCollough was found early July 23 inside a Kia Optima that had crashed into the S.W. Gage building.
McCollough suffered a gunshot wound that entered the back of his left shoulder. He didn’t have a pulse when Topeka police arrived and was unresponsive when officers performed CPR on him. He was taken to Stormont Vail Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police Detective Scott Dickey said analysis by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation concluded that a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol recovered from a Shawnee County creek matched a spent cartridge casing found at the shooting scene and the bullet recovered from McCollough’s body.