Attorneys: Grand jury could help break silence in Williams case

Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 23, 2007 at midnight

Text size

More Local News

Denver police raised the possibility a day after Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams was killed that a grand jury could hear testimony in the challenging case.

A source knowledgable about the investigation said a Denver investigator told him on Jan. 2 that a grand jury already had been convened.

Although legal observers say a successful prosecution could rest on a grand jury's subpoena power, Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for the Denver District Attorney's Office, said Monday that no grand jury was taking testimony in the football player's death.

"The grand jury is not hearing testimony, and a grand jury has not gotten the Williams case," Kimbrough said.

Upon hearing of Kimbrough's denial, the source who told the Rocky Mountain News about his Jan. 2 conversation with police theorized the detective might have been bluffing.

Police have questioned many of those who were at the nightclub Williams visited in the hours before his death, including Denver Nuggets player DerMarr Johnson.

Johnson said Monday that he met with investigators at their office. "There was nothing I could tell them," he said.

Johnson said two other teammates, Carmelo Anthony and Kenyon Martin, also were at the club that night. Both Anthony and Martin have said in interviews that they left before midnight, long before Williams departed.

As the case drags on with no arrests, some observers say a grand jury might be investigators' best hope of pursuing justice.

"From the first moment . . . I thought to myself it has grand jury written all over it," said Denver defense lawyer and legal analyst Scott Robinson.

Williams, 24, was shot and killed in a barrage of gunfire at West 11th Avenue and Speer Boulevard a 2:20 a.m. Jan. 1 after leaving Club Safari, a nightspot near downtown, in a rented Hummer limo. Two other passengers in the limo were wounded.

Williams' group had attended a New Year's Eve birthday party at the nightclub in honor of Martin. Some witnesses have told police there was a verbal altercation at the club between associates of Williams and some unidentified partygoers.

Reputed gang member Willie D. Clark, 23, who was arrested Jan. 5 on an alleged parole violation, has been named a person of interest in the case. He remains in jail.

Clark's lawyer, Michael Andre, said Monday he has not been told whether there will be a grand jury in the Williams case.

But, he added, "That wouldn't surprise me in the least bit."

Grand juries have the power to subpoena personal records and force reluctant witnesses to appear.

That's an issue in the Williams case, which police believe may have involved gang members.

Police have seized the 1998 Chevy Tahoe from which they believe the shots were fired at Williams' limo. The car belongs to Crips gang member Brian Kenneth Hicks.

Hicks, 28, has been in jail since Nov. 9 on drug charges and police have been unable to determine who was driving his car on the night of the shooting.

Hicks also is being eyed in the unsolved slaying of Kalonniann Louisa Clark-James, who was gunned down at her home in the Cherry Creek area the night of Dec. 6, just days before she was to testify against Hicks in an attempted murder trial.

The Clark-James killing raised police and street-level concerns about retaliation against cooperating witnesses in a number of pending cases, both solved and unsolved.

"There may be a number of people who are reluctant to give statements to the police, either because they are associated with criminal conduct themselves, or they are fearful of gang reprisals," said Robinson, who writes legal commentary for the Rocky.

"What better tool than the grand jury subpoena and testimony under oath to find out what really happened during the (Williams) shooting?" he said.

Robinson said a grand jury setting also would lend itself to addressing a number of unsolved - but possibly related - cases that might include overlapping witnesses or suspects.

There are three ongoing grand juries in Denver right now. Two were impaneled for 2007 cases and one is a holdover panel from 2006.

On Monday, Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson referred all grand jury-related questions to the district attorney's office. He disclosed no new developments in the Williams probe.

What they said

• Scott Robinson, legal analyst: "It has 'grand jury' written all over it because there are people who are not just worried about repercussions from gangs, but are leery of the police in general."

• Michael Andre, defense attorney: "The bottom line is that, a lot of times when you have people who aren't really cop-friendly, it's impossible to get any cooperation from them."

brennanc@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2742

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News