The trial of Frederick D. Grace is set to begin today in Richmond County Superior Court, nearly three years after a deadly gunfight at a Deans Bridge Road trailer park left a teenager dead and two men charged with murder.
A grand jury indicted Grace and co-defendant Moses O’Bryant McGahee in January 2023 on six counts: malice murder, three counts of felony murder, possession of a firearm during commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
The charges stem from the Nov. 5, 2022, shooting death of Ronald Haugabook Jr., 17, whom prosecutors said was a bystander killed during a chaotic exchange of gunfire between the two men.
Stray bullets also struck three mobile homes, endangering the lives of others, prosecutors said.
In an Oct. 15 motion, Assistant District Attorney Alessandro Pacheco said Grace walked into the trailer park armed with a gun and demanded money from McGahee.
Haugabook came over and handed McGahee a gun, the motion said. At that point, Grace began firing toward McGahee and struck Haugabook in the head, killing him, it said.
Court filings don’t show where the charges against McGahee, 36, have changed but he’s not on trial this week. He remains in custody at the Richmond County Jail.
Haugabook’s mother, Dorothy Johnson, previously told The Augusta Press her son was not the intended target and was merely walking to his brother’s residence at Number One Mobile Home Park when he was shot. His older siblings watched him die at the scene, she said.
Pacheco’s motion said the state intends to use Grace’s 1999 conviction for burglary to impeach him if he testifies on his own behalf. In another motion, the state asked to block Grace’s defense — conflict defender Dan Franck — from suggesting someone else committed the shooting without providing evidence linking another person directly to the crime.
Jury selection took place Monday in Superior Court Judge John Flythe’s court.
