Trial set in shooting of 3 USM football players

By Monica Land

HATTIESBURG – A man accused of shooting three Southern Mississippi football players outside a club nearly two years ago is scheduled to go to trial today.

Thirty-year-old Travis Brown will appear in Forrest County Circuit Court on three counts of aggravated assault for allegedly shooting Martez Smith, Tim Green and Deddrick Jones.

Trials are scheduled in July for at least four of the five people accused of helping Brown after the shooting on Nov. 14, 2010 outside the Remington Hunt Club.

Trial on three counts each of accessory after the fact is scheduled July 12 for 24-year-old Van Myers Jr., 26-year-old Cleothus Wilkerson, 34-year-old Jamel Deshawn Black and Travis’ mother, 50-year-old Patricia Brown.

Twenty-four-year-old Sharleshia Gabrielle Bolton was indicted on the same charges, but her records were not on file in the clerk’s office.

According to police, around 1:35 a.m., Smith, Green and Jones were at the Remington Hunt Club in Hattiesburg when they were shot in the parking lot.

Police arrested Wilkerson and Brown, both of Bassfield, and charged them with three counts of accessory after the fact to aggravated assault. The judge in Forrest County Justice Court, George Schmidt, set bond for both suspects at $1.5 million – $500,000 for each charge.

Reportedly, a third suspect, Myers, was arrested in Gulfport, and charged with three counts of accessory before the fact of aggravated assault.

Police were looking for Travis Brown who they believed was the actual trigger man in the shootings.

Smith, Green, Jones and several other players were celebrating the USM’s Golden Eagles’ 31-21 win over Central Florida in Orlando when they went to the Remington Club.

Police said the shooting stemmed from an earlier altercation inside the troubled-ridden club and spilled over outside.

None of the USM players were armed.

Smith, who had been sidelined with a knee injury and didn‘t make the trip, was shot in the back and his spinal cord was reportedly severed. He was paralyzed from the waist down.

The Laurel-Leader Call reported Green was shot in the neck and Jones was shot in the chest.

The operating license for the Remington Hunt Club was suspended pending the initial investigation. Police said they had responded to the club more than 129 times since January 2010.