A 22-year-old man pleaded not guilty Monday to charges stemming from a January home invasion in which he and three others allegedly attacked people in an apartment at Lafayette Square.
Williamsburg resident Devonte J. Hayes was arrested in Grove on Jan. 5 along with three other men — Christopher Allen Williams, Marklin Antonio Mitchell and D’Andre Andrews Hardy — who allegedly charged into the Lafayette Village apartment occupied by seven people and shot a James City County man in the back of the head before fleeing with several stolen items.
Hayes is the second of the four men to plead not guilty. Williams pleaded not guilty June 16 and will face a jury Oct. 14.
The incident occurred around 9 p.m. Jan. 5, when police responded to the 100 block of Lafayette Boulevard for a reported home invasion. According to police, a preliminary investigation revealed four men wearing bandanas over their faces broke into the apartment and threatened its occupants.
Police said a struggle ensued, and a 16-year-old was hit over the head with a chair. A 20-year-old man was shot in the neck and upper arm.
The suspects fled the apartment with some items they had taken, police said, which included cell phones, jewelry and money. Maj. Stephen Rubino of the James City County Police Department said there was a relationship between some of the alleged home invaders and some of the people in the apartment.
A witness spotted the suspects in a gold Ford Taurus at Lafayette Square. Later that night, police arrested Hayes and Mitchell after locating them in a vehicle fitting that description at a 7-Eleven parking lot on Pocahontas Trail. Police found the two other men nearby on foot.
The four have been held at the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail since their arrest Jan. 5.
Criminal complaints filed against the four men in Williamsburg-James City County District Court revealed they had differing accounts of what happened, and none of them were able to say who shot the man in the back of the head.
During his interrogation, Hayes denied being in the area of Lafayette Village, according to the criminal complaints.
The man who was shot testified at a Feb. 20 preliminary hearing that the four men came into the apartment with a shotgun and began beating up people in the living room. He said the men collected wallets and phones and then one of the four men went to the kitchen and got a .22 Taurus handgun from the drawer.
He said he was on the ground with his face buried in his arms when one of the men behind him shot him in the back of the head.
Two officers involved in the investigation also testified at the preliminary hearing. Investigator Jake Rice of the James City County Police Department said he found items related to the incident inside the Ford Taurus and in the backyard of the Algonquin Trail townhouse where Hardy and Williams were arrested. Items included the .22 handgun and a Mossberg shotgun in the vehicle, and a burned blue bandana, a partially burned GPS unit, burnt cell phone cases and a burnt iPhone in the backyard.
Hayes will appear in Williamsburg-James City County Circuit Court for his trial at 9 a.m. Nov. 3.
Court appearances for Mitchell and Hardy are scheduled for Wednesday.
Hayes is charged with eight felony counts of use of a firearm in commission of a felony, three felony counts of armed robbery, three felony counts of abduction, one felony count of malicious wounding and one felony count of burglary. An attempted murder charge was dismissed when the case was brought to a grand jury in March.
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