A request to reconsider bond for a suspect in a 2019 homicide which the prosecutor described as an execution was denied Monday, Oct. 3.
Artravius Ward, 29, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the April 19, 2019, killing of 18-year-old Brian Harris Jr.
Monday during the Richmond County Superior Court hearing, Assistant District Attorney Kevin Davis told Judge John Flythe that Harris was in the backseat of a friend’s car as she tried to pull out from a Gordon Highway convenience store. A vehicle blocked her path. Ward and Keshun Carswell, 29, got out of the blocking vehicle and walked back to her car, firing at Harris from each side of the vehicle, Davis said. Harris was shot several times.
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A woman who had been with Ward and Carswell told investigators that she was forced at gun point to drive the men from the scene, and that the two men discussed killing her because she was a witness, Davis said.
Ward wasn’t arrested until July 2019 in Virginia.
The victim’s aunt asked the judge to deny the bond. His parents are terrified to come to court and are sick with grief, she said.
Defense attorney Keith Johnson asked the judge to consider bond. Ward has no prior felony conviction. The case was prepared for trial in January but because his codefendant does not have an attorney and has refused to accept the services of a public defender, the case isn’t progressing, Johnson said.
The judge declined to set bond for Ward. Before he could finish his sentence, a young man in the courtroom slammed a fist onto a courtroom bench and left the courtroom with a sheriff officer escort.
Sandy Hodson is a staff reporter covering courts for The Augusta Press. Reach her at sandy@theaugustapress.com.
