Starts Right Here shooting suspects to be tried separately, judge rules

The men charged in January's fatal shooting of two students at Des Moines's Starts Right Here alternative school program and the wounding of its founder will be tried separately so one can testify on the other's behalf, a judge ruled this week.

Preston Walls, 18, and Bravon Tukes, 19, are charged with first-degree murder and other offenses in the deaths of 18-year-old Gionni Dameron and 16-year-old Rashad Carr, as well as the shooting of program founder William Holmes, who also goes by the name Will Keeps. Prosecutors say Walls entered the Starts Right Here facility on Southwest Fifth Street in downtown Des Moines and shot the victims, then left in a car driven by Tukes.

The two were scheduled for trial together beginning March 1, but prosecutors had asked for a delay, noting that Tukes' attorneys have a conflict with another trial that week. Although Tukes had waived his right to a speedy trial, Walls has not, meaning his trial must begin no later than May 30.

For subscribers: Starts Right Here's founder was shot helping at-risk kids. It won't stop him, friends say.

Tukes instead asked that the two cases be tried separately. At an April 6 hearing, his attorneys told Judge Lawrence McLellan that Walls, the accused shooter, has made statements in jail suggesting that Tukes had no involvement in the shooting.

Tukes intends to call Walls as a witness in his defense, which could not happen if Walls' charges were being decided in the same trial, so Tukes' attorneys asked McLellan to sever the trials and postpone Tukes' to a later date.

In orders filed Monday, McLellan agreed to try the two men separately.

"The court finds Tukes established he wants to call Walls in his trial and Walls indicated he would testify if called subject to his trial being concluded. As to the final requirement (that the testimony would be 'substantially exculpatory'), while the record is close, the court finds Tukes presented enough evidence to justify a severance of his trial from Walls."

McLellan also denied the motion to postpone Walls' trial, meaning the proceeding remains set to begin May 1. No new trial date for Tukes has yet been set.

William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com, 715-573-8166 or on Twitter at @DMRMorris.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Des Moines school program shooting suspects to be tried seperatedly