Derrick Lacy entered Lee Abraham’s law office first, wearing a bandanna over his face but unarmed.
Following closely behind was Keaira Byrd, a ski mask obscuring his face and an automatic weapon in his hands.
Upon crossing the threshold, Byrd raised the MAC-11 pistol and pointed it at Tony Green, an agent from the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office.
Green opened fire; the shootout had begun.
That version of events is based on testimony offered Friday during Lacy’s preliminary hearing, and it’s the clearest picture yet of what happened immediately preceding the April 28 clash that left Byrd dead, Lacy wounded and soon resulted in well-known Greenwood physician Arnold Smith being charged with orchestrating the scheme.
Sgt. Jeff Byars, a Greenwood police detective, provided the narrative.
He was the only witness Friday.
After his testimony, Leflore County Judge Kevin Adams ruled there was probable cause to bind Lacy over to a grand jury on charges of the capital murder of Byrd and conspiracy to commit murder against Abraham.
Adams also denied bond, so Lacy will remain at the Leflore County Jail at least until a grand jury convenes in August.
Lacy’s defense is that Byrd pointed a gun at his head and told Lacy he needed him to go with him.
He maintains he didn’t know what Byrd had in mind to do at Abraham’s office.
“All they have is Mr. Lacy being present at the scene. That’s it,” said Aelicia Thomas of Rosedale, Lacy’s lead attorney.
She emphasized that police discovered no evidence connecting Smith to Lacy.
All of the doctor’s known communications were with Byrd.
But Assistant Leflore County District Attorney Tim Jones poked some holes in the idea that Lacy didn’t know what was going on.
Jones asked Byars if Byrd was pointing the gun at Lacy as they walked up Market Street toward Abraham’s office. Byars said no, according to information attorney general’s agent Jerry Spell provided in a statement. Spell was parked across Fulton Street from Abraham’s office as a lookout.
The prosecutor also had Byars read from a portion of a 70-page statement Lacy gave investigators while recovering from his injuries at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. In it, Lacy said, “I was in the wrong for going in there.”
Lacy’s statement also said that Byrd had given him a rundown about Smith and that Byrd claimed he was going to be paid $20,000 to “have a lick on Lee Abraham,” slang for commit a crime for pay. Lacy told investigators he overheard a cellphone conversation between Smith and Byrd in which they discussed payment for the crime.
Byars said Byrd and Lacy did know each other, with Lacy referring to Byrd as his cousin.
Lacy also received a text on the day of the shooting from a woman named “Regina.” Byars said its message was something along the lines of “Be careful, and if it doesn’t feel right, just leave.”
It added up to enough for the judge to bind Lacy over to the grand jury.
Another question, though, was whether Lacy should be given bond.
Following his May 9 release from the hospital, Lacy was placed on house arrest with an electronic ankle monitor. Adams said that bond was denied then but that Greenwood Police Chief Henry Purnell requested the house arrest because of concerns about Lacy’s medical care.
The ankle bracelet was borrowed from the Leflore County Youth Court, and the city agreed to pay the daily monitoring fee.
But Lacy’s house arrest was revoked after police found him at Snowden-Jones Apartments, which wasn’t on the route between his doctor’s appointment at Life Help on Browning Road and his home on Church Street. Lacy said it was because his cousin, who was giving him a ride, had to drop his son off.
Byars said he had told Lacy numerous times the importance of going straight to doctor’s appointments and then straight back home without any variation. He said the GPS monitor showed Lacy had gotten out of the car twice and gone to different places within the complex.
The detective also said he believed Lacy doesn’t need the crutches that he used to enter court Friday. Byars said that he’s seen Lacy several times without his crutches and that Lacy only seemed to need them when he realized Byars was near. That includes one incident in which Lacy was talking on a cellphone on the street corner when Byars saw him.
Jones called it “utterly ridiculous” for someone charged with capital murder and conspiracy to commit murder to be doing such.
He said Lacy is a “special danger” to society, especially Abraham, and noted his 2005 felony conviction for residential burglary. Jones said Lacy’s breaking the rules of house arrest showed no reasonable bond would keep him in compliance.
Thomas said her client’s violation of his house arrest wasn’t intentional. She said he’s already missed two doctor’s visits since being jailed and was recently hospitalized in Greenwood because of an infection.
But Adams found that Lacy’s health has substantially improved and that there’s no reason to deny bail for Smith and grant it to Lacy.
At the end of the hearing, Adams asked if anyone had any further business. Lacy raised his hand, and Adams called on him to speak. But Thomas quickly stopping Lacy, saying, “You talk to me first.”
After consulting with Lacy, she told Adams there was nothing further. Lacy sullenly shook his head before being led out of the courtroom.
Lacy, wearing orange jail garb, didn’t speak during the hearing but remained attentive and wrote notes to his attorneys, especially when he appeared to disagree with something that Byars was saying.
He had several supporters in the audience as well as his three attorneys. In addition to Thomas, Demetrice Williams of Flora and Carol Richard of Greenville arrived at court Friday morning to represent him.
Jones objected, though, because they weren’t listed as attorneys of record for Byrd. He said they shouldn’t be allowed to sit at the counsel table during the hearing or consult with Lacy.
That led to a delay in the start of the hearing while Williams and Richard filed paperwork necessary to enter the case.
Richard complained about that while in the courtroom during a break, saying they were just three country lawyers while Lacy faced all the resources of the state of Mississippi against him, including the Attorney General’s Office.
The attorney general had been investigating a murder-for-hire plot against Abraham for several months before the shooting. Byars said that investigation was launched at Abraham’s request when the attorney received information from people in the community that Smith was going around trying to hire someone to kill him. For years, Smith has accused Abraham of holding strong political and economic sway.
Before the shooting, Byrd had called Abraham and offered to sell him evidence that would implicate Smith. According to Byars, Byrd had offered a video with Smith on it and a weapon supposedly bearing Smith’s fingerprints.
Byrd arranged to meet Abraham at the attorney’s office across from the Leflore County Courthouse on the night of April 28.
According to what Lacy told investigators, Byrd came to his house at 404 W. Church St. that night. Byrd put the MAC-11 to Lacy’s head and told him he needed to go with him. According to Lacy, Byrd said he was supposedly going to be paid $20,000 to “have a lick on Lee Abraham.”
They then walked the short distance, about three blocks, from Lacy’s house to Abraham’s office, arriving at about 8:30 p.m.
Byrd’s not available to contradict or confirm what Lacy says happened; he died from a gunshot wound to the head. Lacy, meanwhile, was shot five or six times, Byars said. That included a shot to his lower back and one that broke his shin.
Following the shooting, Lt. Lawrence Williams of the Greenwood Police Department questioned Lacy while in an ambulance outside Greenwood Leflore Hospital awaiting a helicopter ride to a Jackson trauma center. Lacy was in pain because he had just been shot and wasn’t open at first, Byars said.
“He wasn’t in a very good mood, and I can understand that,” Byars said.
Williams asked Lacy to suppose he died; Lacy replied, “Well, I’ll just take my secrets to my grave,” Byars recounted from the witness stand.
Lacy then asked for a lawyer, and Williams walked away. However, a few minutes later Lacy told another officer he was ready to talk, and the officer got Williams, Byars said.
Early the next day, Smith, 70, and Paul Muller, a 54-year-old Morgan City brick mason, were arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
Smith later had a second conspiracy charged added for allegedly arranging with Cordarious Robinson, a 22-year-old felon, to recruit hit men in the months before the shooting. Robinson is also charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Investigators haven’t said what Muller allegedly did.
