Lakisha Marsh had no idea her fiancé had been shot.
Marsh only knew Carlos Lassiter had an inch-and-a-half long gash on his forehead. He would probably need stitches, she thought.
Moments later, Lassiter, 40, collapsed. That’s when Marsh saw blood on his jersey, coming from a single gunshot wound to his chest.
On Wednesday, almost three months after the alleged shooting, York-Poquoson General District Court Judge Stephen Hudgins determined there was enough evidence to send the case of Lassiter’s accused killer, Ryan Lyon to a higher court.
Before he was charged with murder, Marsh knew Ryan Lyon as the father of her children.
Police believe Ryan Lyon, 32, shot Lassiter during a March 16 altercation on Walnut Drive in York County. He is charged with second degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
The case against Ryan Lyon’s brother, Laphonso, will also move up to circuit court for his role in the alleged murder. Laphonso Lyon, 29, is charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Before hearing testimony, prosecutors dropped a charge of reckless handling of a firearm against Ryan Lyon, and two counts of accessory after the fact to aggravated malicious wounding against Laphonso Lyon.
‘Babe, get our kids’
According to testimony given by Marsh in court, the shooting happened at her mother’s house on Walnut Drive, while Marsh’s family members were at the house for a cousin’s birthday. Some people were drinking, she said.
At some point during the evening, Ryan and Laphonso Lyon arrived. Marsh told Ryan Lyon their child had been called names by people at school earlier that day. Both Lyon brothers also live on Walnut Drive.
“He wasn’t mad, he wasn’t fussing, he was just being his normal self,” Marsh said of Ryan Lyon when he arrived at her mother’s house.
When it was time to pack up the kids and take the birthday festivities elsewhere, Lassiter told Marsh “Babe, get our kids.”
Marsh said Ryan Lyon grew upset and moved toward Lassiter, saying “there you go with that ‘our kids stuff’ again.”
Although the two men never had a physical altercation before, Marsh said Ryan Lyon had issues in the past with Lassiter disciplining her and Ryan Lyon’s two children.
Moments later, a fight broke out between the father of two of her children, Ryan Lyon, and her fiancé, Lassiter, Marsh said.
“Carlos tried to explain ‘I help raise them and I help take care of them, too,’” said Kelly Jones, one of Marsh’s family members.
‘Everyone’s seen that gun’
Jones testified she saw Ryan Lyon pull a gun from his waistband and use it to strike Lassiter in the head twice. When he went to strike Lassiter a third time, the gun went off.
After the gun “popped,” Lyon began to panic, Marsh said, asking her cousins not to call the police. He handed his two guns to his brother, Laphonso, who took them to their car across the street.
The brothers then got in their car and drove off, Marsh said.
Marsh knew the Ryan Lyon carried a gun around the neighborhood. She had seen him carry it nearly every day for about a year, she testified.
“Everyone’s seen that gun,” she said.
The brothers’ trial date will be scheduled following the grand jury docket call on July 18.
Fearing can be reached at sarah.f@localvoicemedia.com.
