Court Watching: In tense courtroom Judge Green binds over Lewis for murder

Arndola Charles Lewis, 44, a black male of Van Buren Township, was bound over to circuit court for a March 1 arraignment on the information on charges of homicide, possession of a weapon by a felon, and felony firearm (using a weapon to commit a felony).
He is accused of shooting Ypsilanti resident Samer Taha Abukaff, 37, in the back of the head as he was leaving Lewis’ Harbour Club apartment after an altercation on Jan. 29.
After the preliminary exam, 34th District Court Chief Judge Tina Brooks Green found there was probable cause that Lewis committed the crimes and sent him on to the higher court for a March 1 arraignment on the information. Lewis had a $500,000 cash bond that had been set at his arraignment and Judge Green changed that to have him held without bond.
That preliminary exam was to be held on Feb. 22, but before it could begin Judge Green’s courtroom was filled with friends and family of the defendant and a group of angry young men who were friends and family of the victim.
Judge Green asked the nine men standing against the wall to please take their seats so the exam could begin. One said, “I’m not sitting and I’m not leaving.”
They continued standing and moving forward toward the front of the courtroom where Lewis was sitting.
Judge Green stood and addressed the men: “Please, please, let me do my job.”
Two mature Arab men were seated in the front row of the courtroom and one stood and went to the back of the courtroom to talk to the young men and some took their seats.
“I don’t want to remove you,” she said, noting she could clear the courtroom. One of the men responded that he wasn’t going anywhere.
As the tensions escalated, police officers from many different jurisdictions filled the courtroom, with several guarding Lewis, several around Judge Green’s bench and in the jury box, and many more standing shoulder to shoulder along the wall near the young Arabs. Police took their places all around the courtroom. At least 15 were in place as the exam began, with more entering the courtroom as the case went on.
A Fox News cameraman was in the jury box waiting for Lewis’ exam to begin and began recording the activities throughout the courtroom as the case was called.
After Judge Green announced the bind-over following the exam, a woman was accused of threatening the victim’s family member and she was taken into custody. She called out that she wasn’t threatening, but just talking to her “significant other.” Judge Green said charges would be filed and she doesn’t want any of those kinds of things going on in her courtroom.
After the exam, five police officers surrounded Lewis and hustled him back to the lockup, while the victim’s family members and friends stood around in the courtroom.
The officer in charge of the case, VBT Detective Ken Toney, announced to them that he would alert the circuit court judge about what had happened in this courtroom and he will ask the judge to keep the young men out of the courtroom downtown.
The courtroom emptied and there was no further problem.
At the beginning of the exam, Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor John Cayce called the first witness, Tamika Smith, 43, who lived with the defendant in the Harbor Club apartment at 48500 Denton Road.
She testified that it was between 5 and 6 p.m. on Jan. 29 when she got home. She said Lewis was in the apartment. They had gone to school together and were in a dating relationship.
Smith said the entry door to the apartments should be kept locked, but she saw it was open and her front door was unlocked.
Then she saw a man lying on the ground in the hallway straight ahead, with his head closest to her and she saw blood by the head. “I just screamed. I called 911 and went outside,” she testified.
Smith said Lewis was in the hallway and he said, “Baby, call 911.” She said the police came and told her to move to the side and she talked to the detective later.
She said she knew the deceased, who she called “Sam,” for two years and he changed her oil for her. She said Sam and Lewis had no dispute.
When court-appointed defense attorney David Lankford cross-examined her, she said her mother Glenda had been with her that day, but her mother left as she went into the building. She called her mother later, she said.
Smith said she had known Sam since June 2016 and he had come over and they were all there together. She said even at the oil change place in Ypsilanti they all got along.
Lankford pointed out while they assume Lewis made the fatal shot, he didn’t leave the scene and he asked Smith to call 911. Smith cried softly on the stand.
Second witness was VBT Officer Christopher Hayes, who said he was alone in his marked car when he was dispatched to the scene of a female finding a dead person. He said he was the first to arrive.
Officer Hayes testified he saw Smith on the phone and knocked for her to open the door. He said another person was on the phone as well and he saw him coming out of the apartment into the hall. It was Lewis who had a cellphone in hand and both hands up. He said Officer Ryan Bidwell had arrived.
“I asked what happened and Lewis said, ‘I was attacked,’” Officer Hayes testified. He said they went into the apartment and the body was face down in the middle of the hallway with a black, semi-automatic handgun on the floor near the feet of the body. There were no signs of life, he said. Hayes said they secured the scene and talked with neighbors and no one saw anything.
Under cross-examination by Lankford, Hayes said Lewis was very cooperative and never denied shooting the person. Prosecutor Cayce asked Hayes about what he saw and there was no damage to the front door and nothing flipped over inside.
Third witness was VBT Detective Donovan McCarthy who said he was called into work on Sunday, Jan. 29, to interview Lewis. It was audio recorded, he said, and he read him his Miranda Rights.
After about an hour interview, he said Lewis wrote out his statement on what happened.
Det. McCarthy read the statement from the stand. It said Lewis was watching TV when the doorbell rang and there was a knock. He looked out the peephole and saw Sam. He said Sam kicked his flip-flops off and came into the apartment. He said he told him Tamika was not home. He said Sam talked to him like he was a bitch and said, “N—–, you just need to chill.” He said the two started to tussle and Lewis told Sam he had to get the f— out of his house. He said he pointed the gun and they started fighting again and the gun went off. Lewis said he attempted to put pressure on the hole, but there was too much blood.
McCarthy said Lewis said he was pointing the gun and Sam reached for the gun and it went off. He said he asked Lewis how the bullet struck the back of Sam’s head and there was no reply.
Lankford said the video he got that morning is of the interview and McCarthy said it should be from the moment Lewis walked into the interview room to the moment he walked out.
Prosecutor Cayce pointed out the statement was Lewis’ version of what happened.
Defense attorney Lankford asked for Lewis’ size and McCarthy said it was 5’5” and 100 pounds. The medical examiner said the deceased Arab male was 5’8” and weighed 203 pounds.
The medical examiner said the gunshot wound to the head was through and through, back to front, left to right, and upward. The method of death was homicide.
According to Michigan Department of Corrections records, Lewis’ criminal record includes an attempted robbery while armed conviction from November 1999. He also was convicted with an assault with intent to do great bodily harm charge in 2011, followed by two drug possession convictions in 2015 in Washtenaw County. He is on probation until Feb. 12, 2018 on the drug charges.