Charges of murder, robbery and assault against a Walthall County man who is accused of shooting another man outside a Lenoir Sellars Road house on June 19 are going to a Pike County grand jury.
McComb City Judge Danny Smith bound the charges against Marcus Cartez Parker, 21, 28 Hollis Jones Road, Tylertown, to the grand jury after a preliminary hearing Wednesday in city court.
Parker is charged in the shooting death of Francisco Javier Alvarado Puga, 25, during what police said was an attempted robbery.
Parker also is charged with armed robbery in the June 18 hold-up of the B-Line convenience store at 1218 S. Broadway, and with burglary in the June 16 home invasion of a residence in the 600 block of Pearl River Avenue in which shots were fired inside an apartment.
None of the cases are related. Smith set Parker’s bond at $400,000 — $250,000 on the murder charge, $50,000 for the burglary and $100,000 for the robbery.
Ryan Elizabeth Tobias, 24, 105 Dixon Road, McComb, who is charged with armed robbery in the Puga case and accused of driving Parker to and from the shooting, waived her preliminary hearing, meaning that her case goes directly to the grand jury. She remains in the Pike County jail in lieu of $75,000 bond.
The preliminary hearing for LaSteven Dwayne Felder, 23, 429 Frank Mingo St., McComb, who is also charged with armed robbery in the Puga case, is continued to July 28. He remains in the county jail in lieu of $75,000 bond.
During the hearing on the shooting, McComb detective Brian Boyd said three witnesses identified Parker from a photo lineup.
“What we gathered from the (witnesses’) interviews, they (Parker and Felder) were attempting to do a robbery,” Boyd said.
Under later questioning by Smith, Boyd said that no money was found on Puga’s body, and he had no evidence other than Parker’s statement that Parker and Felder planned to rob Puga.
“Parker said he pulled a gun and told Puga to ‘give it up.’ ”
No one else, Boyd said, heard Parker demand money.
He said Parker came to the McComb police station accompanied by a Walthall County sheriff’s deputy and said he wanted to confess to Puga’s murder.
Under cross-examination by Paul Luckett, Parker’s attorney, Boyd said two of the witnesses said they were about 10 feet from Parker and another was with Felder at the time of the shooting.
Boyd said the yard “was full of people” when he arrived at the scene, adding he did not know who called police about the shooting.
He said the autopsy of Puga indicated that Puga died of a single gunshot wound to the head, just inside the left eye.
Boyd said that authorities have been unable to get statements from Hispanic residents who were with Puga because of language barriers.
In the other cases, Detective Robert Holmes testified during the hearing that Parker admitted to the B Line robbery and the Pearl River break-in during questioning about the Puga shooting.
Parker and Darian Devon Lee, 17, 1117 24th St., McComb are accused of entering the B Line on South Broadway on June 18 and stealing $780.
Holmes said store security video shows two black men with shirts pulled up over their faces entering the store and taking the money. He said Parker’s description of the clothing he was wearing on June 18 matched the clothes of one of the robbers.
He said no money was recovered, adding that Parker told police that he and his accomplice met two other men and divided the money.
Holmes said Parker also said he kicked in the door to the apartment on Pearl River Avenue and fired two shots from a 9mm handgun in the apartment. He said Parker claimed the gun fired in the apartment was the same gun used in the Puga shooting.
Holmes said Charles Smith, who lives in the apartment, told police that when the shots were fired, he hid and did not see who was in the residence.
