Not-guilty pleas were entered Thursday for six of eight people accused of racketeering, including the two men suspected of robbing and killing Sam's Club manager David Holt.
Ronald Coleman Jr., 29, and Carlston W. Coleman Jr., 30, - re-indicted on charges of kidnapping, burglary, armed robbery, hijacking a motor vehicle and weapon violations in Mr. Holt's June 21, 1998, death - are already scheduled to stand trial on those charges April 20 in Richmond County Superior Court. The men are not related.
Ronald Coleman's defense attorney, however, withdrew a request for a speedy trial, a motion that had started the clock running to try Mr. Coleman within four months of the original January indictment. Violation of a speedy trial demand can result in dismissal of charges.
But his speedy trial demand was filed before the April 4 re-indictment of both men and six others. The new indictment includes the charge that each of the eight suspects violated the state's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Among the allegations in the new 16-page indictment are charges of fraud, theft, drug dealing and - for all but one of the accused - taking part in the July 24, 1997, slayings of Ryan J. Singh, 21, and Manuel B. Arroyo, 19.
Oh Thursday, Carlston Coleman's attorney waived his client's presence for arraignment. One suspect, known to law enforcement officers only by the alias John Lamar Travis, was not in court. An outstanding grand jury warrant for his arrest remains unserved.
The arraignment of another suspect in the RICO case, Charles D. Winters, 27, was postponed because his defense attorney was not present.
Kendric Dudley, 30; Ronnie B. Overton Jr., 21; Harold L. Jarman, 24; and Laverne Ellis, 28, were each arraigned Thursday. Ms. Ellis is the only RICO suspect not linked in the indictment to the slayings of Mr. Singh and Mr. Arroyo.
None of the suspects faces murder charges in Richmond County Superior Court. If such charges are to filed in Mr. Holt's death, they must be filed in Aiken County or in the U.S. District Court because Mr. Holt died - locked alive in the trunk of his burning car - just across the Savannah River in South Carolina. If charges of murder are to be filed in the shooting deaths of Mr. Singh and Mr. Arroyo, they must be filed in Warren County, where the two men were slain.
Reach Sandy Hodson at (706) 823-3226.
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