Shooting victim dies; two face murder charges|[06/23/08]

Published 12:00 am Monday, June 23, 2008

A Vicksburg man shot several times outside his home two weeks ago died during surgery in Jackson Sunday, and charges against the pair accused in the shooting will be upgraded to murder, police said.

David Becker, 26, 712 Speed St., died at 4:01 p.m. at University Medical Center after he had been listed in critical condition at the hospital since June 8, when he was shot in the chest, arm and both legs while standing on his front porch.

The shooting at 2:47 a.m. also injured Lee Sherman Yates, 42, who lived at the same house and also was standing on the porch when the shooting occurred. Yates was shot once in the foot and was treated and released from River Region Medical Center.

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Police said the shooting followed a fight involving several people near Speed and Hunt streets, a block from Becker and Yates’ home. Vicksburg Police Lt. Bobby Stewart said that the fight involved one the victim’s juvenile sons.

Warren County Coroner Doug Huskey said this morning that an autopsy will be performed at the Mississippi State Crime Lab today.

About 12 hours after the shooting, Eric Campbell, 27, 503 Fairground St., and Antonio Glasper, 22, 74 Redhawk Road, surrendered after learning police were looking for them. Witnesses had identified both men as the shooters.

Each was charged with two counts of aggravated assault, one count of drive-by shooting and one count of shooting into an occupied dwelling.

Since Becker’s death, both will see one of the aggravated assault charges upgraded to murder, Stewart said.

Glasper’s charges were increased this morning after he was moved to the Vicksburg Police station from the Warren County Jail, where he has been since the shooting.

Police were still looking for Campbell, who had been released from the jail after posting a $95,000 bond.

The homicide is the third in the city this year. Keiwana Hoza Jones, 25, 1312 China St., faces murder charges in the shaken-baby death of 4 1/2-month-old Matthew Parker, who died Feb. 6 at River Region. Matthew Parker was the son of 29-year-old Matthew Nash, whose trial in Warren County Circuit Court begins today on a murder charge from June 2007. Nash and four others were charged in the shooting death of Justin Maurice Harris, 25.

At the time of Matthew Parker’s death, Jones was on probation from a January burglary conviction. He was arrested and charged two days after the infant died. Jones remains in the Warren County Jail.

The same day Jones was arrested, Donald Wayne Vinson, 39, 350 Vinson Road, died from a single gunshot wound to the face in a shooting at the Town & Country Lounge, 3350 N. Washington. James Denver Ainsworth, 24, 279 Opperman Road, was arrested and charged with shooting and killing Vinson, his brother-in-law. The shooting reportedly happened after a family argument at the bar. Ainsworth since has been released on a $100,000 bond.

Jones’ and Ainsworth’s cases are awaiting action by the Warren County grand jury.

The lone homicide in the county this year was that of 15-year-old Sharonda Brown, who was found dead by a Mississippi Department of Transportation maintenance worker along the side of Mississippi 433 in Yazoo County.

James Lumpkin, 46, 204 Sherman Ave., the father of one of the victim’s half-sisters, was charged with capital murder in Sharonda’s death. Authorities said her body was found two days after Lumpkin drove her from Vicksburg and through Warren County before dumping her in Yazoo County. He is believed to have killed her in Warren County, Yazoo County Sheriff Thomas Vaughan said after Lumpkin was returned to Warren County and charged here after initially being held in the Yazoo County jail.