After accused killer Myron Deshun Grant’s preliminary hearing this morning was continued for six weeks, his attorney, outside of court, returned to speculation that the spotlight of suspicion should be aimed at another family member.
Mr. Grant, 26 years old and facing the prospect of his fourth felony conviction, stands accused of murdering City Hall construction consultant Paul Bilodeau, on the evening of Jan. 2, 2009, in Fox Hills, where the building of Fire Station No. 3 was under way. He has been characterized as a gang member.
“I don’t want to mis-speak and say that I have solid evidence that the half-brother, Davonte Hatcher, had anything to do with this,” Robert Conley told the newspaper.
“But I will say this: The implicating evidence would be that (Mr. Hatcher) possessed the victim’s cellphone and pawned the victim’s cellphone. Pawning the cellphone was the key to the whole investigation.
“On his own personal cellphone, (Mr. Hatcher) had a picture of a .357 magnum.”
As for the half-brother’s whereabouts, Mr. Conley explained: “He has criminal charges in federal court of a different nature pending against him. I don’t know if he is in custody on that matter, Normally, someone would be. The bail would be fairly substantial. But maybe he made bail.”
Mr. Conley was asked if the brothers were close.
“Our position,” he said, “is that they were not. Our position is that our client did not have a connection that has been made clear to me to that phone. It is Mr. Hatcher’s position that my client did. That is something he began to state after it became obvious to him that his phone calls were being recorded.”
When Culver City police concluded last June, after a year and a half search, that Mr. Grant was the assailant of the well-liked Mr. Bilodeau, they said pawning of the Bilodeau cellphone flung open the door on the elusive case.
Mr. Grant, whom authorities said has been continuously incarcerated for the past 13 months, originally on another crime, is scheduled to return to court on Thursday, May 5.
