- November 23, 2024
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Four men have been charged with murder or attempted murder for the fatal shootings of local 16-year-olds Noah Smith and Keymarion Hall. Three of the four have been arrested; one suspect is at large.
"I hope today’s arrests help bring closure for the families, knowing the murderers and their accomplices are being held accountable."
— RICK STALY, Flagler County sheriff
Sheriff Rick Staly announced the arrests during a June 14 news conference with State Attorney RJ Larizza and Bunnell Police Chief David Brannon at the county courthouse.
Smith and Hall, he said, were not the intended targets of the shootings: Instead, one of the suspects — 18-year-old Terrell Sampson, the suspect who’s still at large — was the intended target in both shootings, which involved a dispute between two local factions .
“These are good kids,” Staly said of Smith and Hall. “There’s no connection to either one of these kids, that we have been able to find out, to any one of these groups.
The suspects in custody are 20-year-old Tyrese Patterson, 23-year-old Stephen Monroe and 18-year-old Devandre Williams. All three are charged with first-degree murder for Smith’s January 2022 shooting death. They are being held at the county jail.
Williams is also facing charges of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder with a firearm for Hall’s death in May.
Terrell Sampson has a warrant for his arrest for attempted second-degree murder for Smith’s death.
The shootings were the culmination of months of violence between two groups of what Staly described as “wannabe badasses.”
One group is based in Bunnell; the other, which calls itself “GSO,” for “Get Stepped On,” is based in Palm Coast.
Last September, Staly said, there had been an attempted drive-by shooting that had targeted Williams in Bunnell. There was another drive-by attempt in December, and, in January, Monroe and other GSO members posted a violent YouTube video that showed themselves pointing guns at the camera. A few days later, there was an attempted carjacking and a robbery at gunpoint involving some of the same people.
On Jan. 12, members of the Bunnell side were standing on South Anderson Street when a car operated by GSO members pulled up, taunted them and opened fire, targeting Terrell Sampson. They hit and killed Noah Smith instead.
The Bunnell Police Department opened the homicide investigation, but then turned it over to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office Major Case Unit.
In May, an unindicted co-conspirator drove GSO members Monroe and Williams to the intersection of East Booe Street and South Pine Street, where they opened fire, trying to kill Terrell Sampson. They instead shot and killed Hall.
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office led the investigation of the May 3 homicide of Hall from the beginning, and has since been contracted to handle all of Bunnell’s major cases.
The FCSO’s Major Case Unit detectives spent over 2,500 hours and served 40 warrants investigating the two cases, Staly said.
The suspects’ social media posts, including music videos, provided evidence of premeditation, he said.
“These were difficult cases based on the intertwining of the suspects, relatives and friends wanting to settle disputes with street justice,” Staly said. “... I hope today’s arrests help bring closure for the families, knowing the murderers and their accomplices are being held accountable.”
In addition to the four suspects charged with murder or attempted murder, deputies have arrested five men and a 14-year-old boy who are believed to be linked to the murder investigations.
The adult suspects — 19-year-old Jebea Johnson, 28-year-old Edward Sampson, 19-year-old Keyshawn Davis, 20-year-old Josiah Feimster and 20-year-old Rodrick Williams — have been charged with drug charges, violent felonies or probation violation. The 14-year-old suspect was arrested earlier this month for armed robbery.
