Both are suspects in a high-profile shooting that claimed the lives of Bri-Yanna Williams and Koredreese Tyson at the home of the chief operating officer for TRU Colors Brewery, George Taylor III, in July 2021.
The brewery was founded by Taylor’s father, George Taylor, Jr., who hired active gang members, intending to deter gang-related violence within the city.
Bell and Green are being charged with first-degree murder for the deaths of Williams and Tyson. They also face an attempted murder charge for allegedly shooting and wounding another woman.
Trial underway after delays
Bell and Green have been held in custody at the New Hanover County Detention Facility since their arrest in August 2021. The third suspect in this case, Raquel Adams, was convicted last May.
After their trial was delayed when their court-appointed attorneys resigned from the case, the wheels are turning on this case once more.
Both defendants filed new motions in the days leading up to the trial — most of them filed by Green’s defense attorney Matthew Geoffrion, with over 25 submitted since April 17.
MIL arguments
Many of the motions filed in Green’s defense were motions in limine, which are requests to exclude certain evidence, testimony, or arguments from discovery before they are presented to jurors.
Geoffrion claimed that much of the digital evidence found during law enforcement’s 2021 investigation is “inaccurate” and “stale."
Sergeant Will Campbell and Detective Eric Kelley of the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office were brought to the stand to validate the trustworthiness of the digital evidence their agency submitted during discovery.
When Campbell was cross-examined, he verified that all phone records acquired during the investigation were authenticated by the phone companies from which they originated.
Kelley’s testimony called into question text messages sent on August 22, 2021, that he flagged. They read, “we on Thug ass on low,” and “Is he dead yet?” Kelley did not specify who sent the texts; according to court records, including a 2023 filing from prosecutors, they were sent by Raquel Adams to a man named Tyzheem Nixon, who was incarcerated at the time and communicating using a contraband phone.
"Thug" was a known alias for Koredreese Tyson.
Kelley said he could make no inference as to who the second text referred to, and Geoffrion maintains that Green had nothing to do with what happened on August 22.
Many of the limine motions were denied by presiding Superior Court Judge G. Frank Jones.
Green’s requests
Other motions made on Green’s behalf included requests to issue juror questionnaires, complete recordation of all proceedings (i.e., bench conferences, jury selection, closing argument), and sequestation of the State’s witnesses.
According to Geoffrion, the juror questionnaires would be used as a “neutral tool” to collect information on potential jurors that could conflict with their ability to deliberate fairly and blindly.
Some of the questions on the proposed questionnaire center on race/ethnicity, personal relationships with law enforcement, and whether a juror has a criminal record.
Because expert witnesses from local and federal law enforcement agencies have collected and examined most of the electronic data in this case — and the case of a previous co-defendant, Raquel Adams — Geoffrion filed a motion to sequester these witnesses to prevent their respective testimonies from getting muddied up by “testimony or knowledge from another witness,” he wrote in the motion.
The motion for complete recordation explains itself, but more importantly, Green would be able to correct any mistakes that may arise during proceedings that are typically unrecorded.
Scope of testimony
Assistant District Attorney Doug Carriker, filed two motions last week on behalf of the State, both of which list Bell and Green as co-defendants.
One was a motion for preservation of testimony, and the other was a motion regarding the scope of testimony of Cierra Wallace — a U.S. Probation Officer for Raquel Adams.
The latter was the source of great concern for Geoffrion, and Bell’s defense lawyer, Meleaha Kimrey.
Essentially, it limited the questions the defense could ask during cross-examination to the scope of Wallace’s employment.
The one thing it would allow the defense to question Wallace on was any communication she may have had with Raquel Adams as his probation officer.
Kimrey argued that limiting the scope of questioning to that extent would be “boxing the defense in.”
Geoffrion agreed and asked the judge to deny the State’s motion, saying that it would affect his client’s rights in trial, considering they’d only be allowed to ask Wallace questions related to Adams, who is already convicted.
After some time deliberating the issue, Judge Jones ordered that the language of the motion expand the scope of questioning to additional matters related to the case overall.
Motion to sever trial
The most contentious argument to arise from the first day of trial came from the defendants' motions to sever their trial.
Kimrey listed several reasons why severance would be necessary.
One reason was the courtroom's seating arrangement. She argued that whether a defendant faces the jury versus the witness stand could cause an imbalance in jurors' opinions.
Another reason she gave was the sheer amount of evidence (text messages, phone numbers, tracking data) the jurors would have to keep track of for both defendants during the course of the trial.
Kimrey’s most cogent reason was the difference in her and Geoffrion’s defense strategy and communication style. She stated to the court that objections may come up that she’ll want to make in the defense of Bell that may not be in Green’s favor.
She continued to note that one co-defense's cross-examination may impact the other’s ability to cross-examine the same witness later on if it causes that witness to emotionally shut down.
The state prosecutor Doug Carriker, argued that there was no significant change in the circumstances described in the request for a joinder, granted by Judge Kent Harrell last year, that would permit a severance.
Carriker said “consolidation is the rule,” referring to Rule 42 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which allows courts to consolidate trials to avoid unnecessary cost or delay.
He also argued that Bell and Green were acting as gang members under close affiliation, so there would ultimately be no need to parse the trial out.
This notion is something Green called out in a motion for discovery filed on April 27, which states, “Green notes to the Court that it is the State that has brought the gang enhancement charges and attempted to center this trial around gang information, thereby making the need for additional discovery necessary.”
Jones denied Bell and Green’s motions for severance.
Outside the courtroom, Omonte Bell’s father, Carl Bell, told WHQR that he hopes the trial doesn’t drag the case on too much longer, “but trial is trial,” and he says he hopes his son has a fair one.
“It's never too late. I mean, I was in that situation myself. You know, but I turned my life around,” he said.
