A live preliminary exam with three witnesses has been set for 11 a.m., Monday, July 24, at 34th District Court in first-degree murder and felony firearm charges against a long-distance truck driver from Texas.
In a special hearing on July 10, Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Ryan Elsey presented a motion to change the defendant’s bond from the original $200,000 cash or surety to remand, which means remaining in jail with no bond at all.
Elsey told Judge Tina Brooks Green that the case appears to be a stranger who killed a stranger and actions to cover up the homicide. He said there is compelling evidence that defendant Mark Anthony Shaw is responsible. The evidence is circumstantial, he said.
He said the accused is domiciled in Texas and has no ties to Michigan. He was passing through as a truck driver. He has ties outside of the country. He said Shaw is a danger to the people of the state and he has no incentive to come back to court if he bonds out.
Elsey asked for the bond to be changed to remand.
Shaw’s defense attorney Christopher Quinn told Judge Green he thought the $200,000 cash or surety bond was sufficient.
Judge Green said the arraigning judge had no information on the case when he set the bond. She canceled the $200,000 bond and remanded the defendant to remain in custody.
At Shaw’s July 12 probable cause conference, which Shaw attended from his cell by zoom from the Wayne County Jail, Elsey said there will be three witnesses at the preliminary exam and one is being flown in.
In the press release issued by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office on July 3 announcing the warrant for Shaw’s arrest, Prosecutor Kym Worthy said she has charged Mark Anthony Shaw, 39, of Missouri City, Texas, in connection with the fatal shooting of Stafford Segree, 47, of Van Nuys, California. Both the defendant and the victim were long-distance truck drivers. They did not know each other prior to the incident, the news release said.
On June 29, at about 12:52 p.m., Van Buren Township police officers were dispatched to an alley in the 10900 block of Belleville Road for a reported unresponsive male, according to the news release.
Upon their arrival, officers located the victim inside of his semi-truck, deceased, suffering from a gunshot wound to the face.
It is alleged that on June 28, at about 10:20 p.m., a verbal altercation between the defendant and the victim escalated, and defendant Shaw produced and fired a handgun, fatally wounding Segree, before fleeing the scene.
Investigation by the Van Buren Township Police Department led to the arrest of the defendant on June 29.
He was arraigned July 3 in 34th District Court before Judge Brian Oakley and given a $200,000 cash/surety bond.
David Armando Palacios-Sanchez
David Armando Palacios-Sanchez, 44, of Detroit was present for his probable cause conference on June 28 from the Wayne County Jail where he is being held on $500,000 cash bond.
His live preliminary exam was set for Aug. 9 before Judge Oakley. He is charged with five counts concerning the deaths of two women in a hit and run on May 28 in Sumpter Township. Judge Oakley denied reduction of bond.
Samantha Ann Lawson
Samantha Ann Lawson of Taylor was present for her calendar conference on June 27 at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit. Her final conference was set for Aug. 11.
She was charged with assault with intent to murder, discharging a weapon in or at a building, assault with a dangerous weapon (felonious assault) and three counts of felony firearm on April 19 in Van Buren Township.
34th District Court Chief Judge Brian Oakley dismissed the assault with intent to murder charge and one of the felony firearm charges at the May 24 preliminary exam.
Her bond had been set at $75,000 cash, but at circuit court on May 31 it was reduced to personal recognizance bond.
She is accused of shooting into an occupied residence at Parkwood Apartments.