The aunt of convicted baby killer De’Marquise Elkins pleaded guilty Friday to providing a false alibi for him as police investigated the fatal shooting of a 13-month-old boy.
Katrina Elkins pleaded guilty to making a false statement to officers for saying De’Marquise, who is now serving what is likely a 105-year-sentence, was at her house playing games on her computer at the time Antonio Santiago was shot in the face by a youth who tried to rob his mother on a Brunswick street, District Attorney Jackie Johnson said.
Superior Court Judge Stephen Kelley accepted her guilty plea in Hazlehurst where her trial had been moved because of overwhelming publicity in Glynn County. Kelley sentenced her to the maximum five years.
With her plea, only one defendant remains, Dominique Lang, 16, who is charged with felony murder, aggravated assault and other charges in Antonio’s slaying. He was with De’Marquise Elkins the morning of the March 21, 2013, slaying and fled with him after a failed attempt to rob Antonio’s mother, Sherry West. West testified she had no money to give Elkins and had pleaded with him to not shoot her baby.
But Lang also testified for the prosecution at the trial of De’Marquise Elkins and his mother Karimah Elkins last year in Marietta, Ga., less than a year ago. The jury there found both guilty and Kelley sentenced Karimah Elkins to the maximum 10 years in prison for throwing the revolver her son had used into a saltwater pond to conceal it from police.
Lang’s lawyer, Kimberly Copeland, filed a motion to have him tried in Juvenile Court, but that is possible only if Johnson drops the felony murder charge.
Johnson said Friday that she believes a mental evaluation that Kelley ordered at Copeland’s request is complete and that it will likely have a bearing on where the case is tried.
“I haven’t seen it yet,” she said of the evaluation. “It goes to the defense before it comes to me.”
Sabrina Elkins, De’Marquise Elkins’ older sister, has also pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence for helping their mother throw away the .22-caliber revolver. Johnson said it is her goal to have Sabrina Elkins sentenced before going forward with the case against Lang.
With her plea Friday, Katrina Elkins likely avoided prosecution on three counts of identity theft. She is accused of getting credit cards in the names of three state convicts.
Johnson said the evidence supporting the indictment has been suppressed by Superior Court Judge Anthony Harrison. Officers who had a search warrant to take Katrina Elkins’ computer also spotted evidence of the identity fraud in her house and seized it.
Harrison ruled the officers should have gotten a separate warrant and threw out the evidence.
“We not going to be able to proceed on those charges,” without that evidence, Johnson said.
Had Katrina Elkins not pleaded guilty to making a false statement, Johnson said her office would have appealed Harrison’s decision.
