The two defendants facing first-degree murder charges in the shooting death of University of Minnesota Duluth student William Grahek will receive separate trials.
St. Louis County District Judge Mark Munger last week denied a prosecution request to join the cases of 22-year-old Deandre Demetrius Davenport and 19-year-old Noah Anthony Charles King.
Munger said in an order that a joint trial with only one jury “would result in substantial prejudice to the defendants.”
“Here, the interests of justice would be affected by a joint trial because it is likely that the defendants will present antagonistic defenses regarding their knowledge of the other’s intent, who pulled the trigger and who intended to commit a specific crime,” the judge wrote.
Davenport and King face potential life sentences if convicted for their roles in the alleged botched robbery-turned-homicide on Feb. 14, 2017. Davenport is accused of shooting Grahek twice after the victim refused to turn over a safe containing drugs and cash, while King allegedly accompanied him and carried a wrench in case they encountered the victim’s dog.
A third defendant indicted by a grand jury on the first-degree murder charge, 20-year-old Noah Duane Baker, later pleaded guilty to intentional second-degree murder, testifying against Davenport and King, and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
The trials for Davenport and King are likely to occur in late October and early November, though formal dates have yet to be scheduled.
St. Louis County prosecutors Jessica Fralich and Vicky Wanta had asked the judge to take the relatively uncommon step of combining the cases for trial. They wrote in a memorandum that Davenport and King each played an active role in planning the robbery, went to the scene together and acted in concert after Grahek was shot.
The prosecutors contended that a joint trial would minimize the impact for the victim’s brother and roommate, Devin Grahek, who is a key witness in the case. Further, they said, Davenport and King have raised the same arguments and taken the same defense positions to this point.
But Kassius Benson, an attorney for Davenport, wrote that a joint trial would present evidentiary issues, with certain out-of-court statements and past allegations of criminal wrongdoing that may be admissible against one defendant but not the other.
Additionally, he argued that a joinder would, in effect, introduce a “second prosecutor” into the case. He said it is anticipated that each defendant will attempt to place blame on the other — requiring that they attack one another’s arguments.
“Defendants have antagonistic defenses when the defenses are inconsistent and when they seek to put the blame on each other and the jury is forced to choose between the defense theories advocated by the defendant,” Benson wrote.
A joint trial is more appropriate in complicated cases involving complex facts and cases involving defendants working in “close concert,” argued Steve Bergeson, an attorney for King.
“Here, the facts and allegations are not so complex that a jury would have difficulty comprehending the evidence or the offenses,” he wrote. “The facts of the case support the allegation that Mr. Davenport was the sole shooter and therefore he did not act in close concert with Mr. King.”
Munger concurred, noting that it would be difficult for a single jury to “distinguish between the differences of the defendants’ individual aiding and abetting liability.”
“In this case, joinder of the defendants would result in substantial prejudice to the defendants,” the judge said. “As a result, the state’s motion for joinder must be denied.”
In addition to Noah Baker, his sister, 23-year-old Tara Rai Baker, also has pleaded guilty in the case. She was sentenced last month to six years of supervised probation after admitting that she lied to police in the aftermath of the shooting.
A fifth defendant, Xavier Alfred Haywood, 27, is charged with aiding an offender. He allegedly planned the robbery and later harbored his co-defendants at a Superior, Wis., hotel after Grahek was shot. He is due back in court on June 28.
The 22-year-old Grahek, who grew up in Centerville, was the son of a St. Paul police sergeant, Jon Grahek, who died of cancer in January.