A man injured in a shooting at a Pontiac motorcycle club last year that left another man — 41-year-old Mecca Ramsey — dead, testified in Oakland County Circuit Court on Thursday that prosecutors have it right in charging Gregory “Transformer” Kincade for the crimes.
As the trial continued Thursday before Judge Shalina Kumar, Malcolm “Tank” Chamber told jurors that he was in the Night Riders Motorcycle Club’s bathroom with Ramsey when Kincade came through the door and bullets began to fly on April 27, 2019. Kincade told him to turn away or he’d be killed, Chambers testified.
There’s no evidence of anyone witnessing the shooting.
There’s no evidence of anyone witnessing the shooting.
Ramsey suffered 12 bullet wounds — eight to his back, and the others to his chest, belly, forearm and wrist — and died at the scene. Several of the bullets tore through his heart and other vital organs, and one broke his neck, according to Ljubisa Dragovic, MD, chief medical examiner for Oakland County, who presented jurors this week with details about Ramsey’s autopsy.
Chambers was shot in the arm, and another bullet grazed his forehead. He made it out of the bathroom but collapsed a short time later in another part of the club.
In an apparent attempt to build doubt in jurors’ minds about Chambers’ credibility, defense attorney Jerome Sabbota noted that his testimony at last year’s preliminary exam in Pontiac’s 50th District Court differed from what he was saying Thursday as to where in the bathroom he was standing when the gunfire started and how much he had to drink that night. Sabbota also noted that in his earlier testimony, Chambers didn’t identify Kincade as the shooter.
In response, Chambers said he wasn’t “asked the right question” during the preliminary exam.
Chambers also testified that he was scared to talk during the lower court proceedings — and that some of those fears remain.
“I’m still a little bit scared, but I’m OK,” he said.
Also testifying Thursday was Mecca Ramsey’s sister, Keisha Ramsey, who said she, too, was at the club the night of the shooting and that her brother had ominous words for he not long before he was killed.
“He said there was a guy in the club that he had an altercation with at another club,” she testified, tearfully. “He said ‘If I get into an altercation with him, don’t you jump in.’ ”
About 10 minutes later, she said, she heard shots being fired. “Immediately, I thought about what my brother had just told me,” she said.
Though she tried to get to the bathroom area where she believed the shooting had happened, Keisha Ramsey said she was forced outside along with the crowd of other panicked people who had been partying moments before. She called her brother’s phone, she said, but the person who answered wasn’t him.
“I asked him, where’s my brother?”
Club official testifies
Called to the stand earlier this week was Mitchell “Mickey” Williams, Night Riders vice president, who testified that he and Willy Ramsey, club president, heard gunfire coming from the area near the bathrooms. As they went there to check it out, Kincade was coming from the men’s restroom and was putting a pistol in his waistband. The two grabbed Kincade and led him to a vestibule in the club, where one of his friend’s approached. Kincade dropped the handgun, which ended up across the floor, and his friend tossed Kincade’s club vest on top of it, Williams testified.
Williams said he and Ramsey detained the two until police arrived a short time later.
Sabbota has questioned the claim that Kincade had placed the handgun in his waistband because, he said, it would have been quite hot if it had just been fired multiple times.
Kincade is charged with open murder, assault with intent to murder and firearms charges. If he’s convicted of any of the charges, prosecutors will seek enhanced sentencing due to his criminal history. He has prior convictions for robbery and domestic violence.
The trial is expected to continue through sometime next week.
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Source: The Oakland Press