Six make first court appearance

The six Livingstone students charged with the shooting death of a Catawba student made their first appearance in district court today.

“Ididn’t kill nobody, Mama,” Ricardo Battle said, crying and looking back at his mother and stepfather, who were sitting in the courtroom, as bailiffs led him and the other five students into Courtroom 3 in the Rowan County Justice Center.

After the hearing, Battle’s stepfather, Keith Glass, said, “Ijust don’t think that Ricardo is capable of doing something like that. He’s a good student.”

Battle, 19, of Stone Mountain, Ga., was charged along with Terrence Jerard Austin, 19, of Atlanta, Ga.; Morris Lee Brannon, 20, of Des Moines, Iowa; Karl Anthony Wilson, 19, of Atlanta; and Isaac Lamon Brazeal, 19, of Battleboro; and Corey Peterson, 19, of Maryland. All are charged with killing Darris Morris, a 21-year-old student and all-conference linebacker for the Catawba College football team.

Clad in orange jail jumpsuits with their hands and legs cuffed, the six men appeared before District Court Judge Charlie Brown Monday morning for their arraignment.

All but Brazeal asked for court-appointed attorneys.

Morris died after being struck by a bullet in the chest late Friday after an altercation broke out between Catawba and Livingstone students at a party on the Catawba campus.

Police now believe two separate handguns were fired by Livingstone students that night.

Salisbury Police Department Deputy Chief Mark Wilhelm said investigators recovered two handguns — a .22-caliber and a 9 mm — from the students and found shell casings that matched those guns’ calibers. The guns will be sent to the State Bureau of Investigation laboratory in Raleigh for ballistics testing, he said.

Police still are unsure who actually fired the weapons.

Two other Catawba students, Demetrius “Duke” Phipps, 19, and Bradley McCrary, 20, also were shot during the melee. Both were treated at Rowan Regional Medical Center and later released. Catawba student Ortheus Barge injured his leg trying to get away from the shooting. He was released from the hospital on Saturday.

According to reports, between 60 and 80 people had gathered at Pine Knot Dorm for a party Friday night. An argument broke out “and moved from the dorm to the street,” Wilhelm said this morning. Police said Livingstone students went to a vehicle parked in the street and at least one student pulled out a gun.

Several shots were fired, but police do not know how many, Wilhelm said.

Six men jumped into a red Dodge Dynasty and sped from the scene, according to police.

Catawba security guard Allen Hinson returned fire as the car left the area. Catawba security guards carry .40-caliber handguns.

Two of the charged men, Austin and Battle, were wounded by those shots. They both were treated and later released.

Hinson has been placed on administrative leave.

“At this point, we feel our security acted properly but unfortunately could not handle the situation,”said Tom Smith, chairman of the board of Catawba trustees. The school is considering measures “to keep anything like this from ever happening again,” Smith said.

After watching her son appear in court this morning, Pamela Williams, Battle’s mother, said no one notified her of the incident. “Nobody told me anything about my child being shot or anything,” Williams said.

Williams and Glass, Battle’s stepfather, came to the hearing from Stone Mountain, Ga.

The six men will be held in the Rowan County Detention Center under no bond pending a probable cause hearing on Feb. 6.

Contact Jonathan Weaver at 704-797-4266 or jweaver@salisburypost.com .