The murder trial of a man charged with playing a role in a series of shootings in Whiteville has been delayed due to COVID-19.
Corey Tashombe Hines, now 26, was charged with first degree murder in the Nov. 26, 2017 shooting death of Elliot Ward Dew.
The case was set for trial this week, and jury selection was underway, but none were seated, when a courts employee was diagnosed with COVID, according to officials. The employee was vaccinated. The case was delayed until the March session of Superior Court.
Dew was a passenger in a vehicle that was hit by multiple gunshots in a convenience store parking lot the week of Thanksgiving 2017. Deron Blanks was seriously injured in the incident. Dew and Blanks were shot in the parking lot of the Happy Mart on Virgil Street around 11:25 p.m. The Chevrolet Equinox the men were driving was riddled with bullets. The police department said “cash and contraband” were found in the vehicle. Shell casings were found scattered across the parking lot.
That shooting was thought to be retaliation for an incident the day before at Saw Mill Apartments. Several vehicles were struck by gunfire and residents were forced to run for cover. Edward Shipman told police he was sitting in his vehicle in the parking lot when a vehicle pulled in and a gunman later identified as Blanks jumped from the vehicle, opening fire at an unknown target.
Hines and Taquay Montez Newkirk were arrested by U.S. Marshals in a Clarkton apartment in December 2017. Newkirk and Hines were initially charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. Discharging a weapon into an occupied vehicle, damage to property and discharging a firearm in the city limits. Hines later saw his charges increased to include murder. He was arrested at the Columbus county Courthouse immediately following an unrelated parole hearing.
Blanks was charged in the Saw Mill apartments attack after his release from Columbus Regional. He was convicted of possession of a firearm by a felon in 2019, and released in 2020 after serving a year in prison.
