Trial set for co-defendant of teenage triple murderer
When Falicia Blakely went on a killing spree two years ago — a crime the 20-year-old recounted earlier this year to CL — she was accompanied by Ameshia Ervin.
Ervin is now scheduled to go to trial June 14 in DeKalb County Superior Court for the same murders — and her trial ultimately could determine whether the two girls’ alleged pimp, Michael Berry, will be charged with the murders as well.
Ervin was Blakely’s partner in the 2002 killings of three men, according to police reports, court records and both girls’ confessions, obtained by CL and reported earlier this year in a two-part series, “Learning to Hit a Lick.”
But by all accounts, it was Blakely, not Ervin, who pulled the trigger on Claudell Christmas, Ray Goodwin and Lemetrice Twitty. Blakely pleaded guilty to the three murders in January to avoid the death penalty. She testified at the plea hearing that Berry ordered her and Ervin to rob and then kill the men - or be killed herself.
DeKalb Assistant District Attorney Tom Clegg has expressed interest in charging Berry with the murders. But, he says, he would need Ervin’s cooperation to determine whether there’s sufficient evidence to prove Berry was the mastermind.
“Any action that might be taken against Michael Berry would in a large sense depend upon what happens to Ameshia,” Clegg says. “And right now, Ameshia is doing nothing that would enable us to go forward. ... We’d have to see [after the trial] whether or not Ameshia is willing to cooperate and testify” against Berry.
Ervin was originally scheduled for trial in May, but the case was delayed after her failed attempt to fire her attorney, Maurice Kenner.
“I have every expectation that it will go to trial,” Kenner now says.
To read more about the murders, visit atlanta.creativeloafing.com/2004-03-04/cover.html, and atlanta.creativeloafing.com/2004-03-11/cover_news.html.
Ervin is now scheduled to go to trial June 14 in DeKalb County Superior Court for the same murders — and her trial ultimately could determine whether the two girls’ alleged pimp, Michael Berry, will be charged with the murders as well.
Ervin was Blakely’s partner in the 2002 killings of three men, according to police reports, court records and both girls’ confessions, obtained by CL and reported earlier this year in a two-part series, “Learning to Hit a Lick.”
But by all accounts, it was Blakely, not Ervin, who pulled the trigger on Claudell Christmas, Ray Goodwin and Lemetrice Twitty. Blakely pleaded guilty to the three murders in January to avoid the death penalty. She testified at the plea hearing that Berry ordered her and Ervin to rob and then kill the men - or be killed herself.
DeKalb Assistant District Attorney Tom Clegg has expressed interest in charging Berry with the murders. But, he says, he would need Ervin’s cooperation to determine whether there’s sufficient evidence to prove Berry was the mastermind.
“Any action that might be taken against Michael Berry would in a large sense depend upon what happens to Ameshia,” Clegg says. “And right now, Ameshia is doing nothing that would enable us to go forward. ... We’d have to see [after the trial] whether or not Ameshia is willing to cooperate and testify” against Berry.
Ervin was originally scheduled for trial in May, but the case was delayed after her failed attempt to fire her attorney, Maurice Kenner.
“I have every expectation that it will go to trial,” Kenner now says.
To read more about the murders, visit atlanta.creativeloafing.com/2004-03-04/cover.html, and atlanta.creativeloafing.com/2004-03-11/cover_news.html.
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