2/5/2009
Men accused in dragging to stay in jail
By Heath Hamacher
Staff Writer
LAWRENCEVILLE - During a probable cause hearing Wednesday, Gwinnett County Magistrate Phyllis Russell said the two men accused of dragging and running over a Dacula teen on Jan. 24 will remain jailed without bond and their cases will be bound over to Superior Court.
Police said Matthew Moore, 21, and David Donnelly, 22, initially told investigators they sped away from the Hamilton Mill residence of 16-year-old Edward "Spencer" Yebra because Yebra pulled a knife and tried to get into their truck during a drug deal. The men punched Yebra in an effort to make him to let go, they told police, as they drove down the street with the teen hanging from the passenger side.
Police believe the two suspects planned to rob Yebra.
Gwinnett police detective Shelly Millsap said Donnelly and Moore told him at one point that they thought they ran over something, possibly a curb.
Investigators said Donnelly's girlfriend loaned him her truck that day to go buy marijuana. Milsap told the court Moore said he had negotiated the deal with a person named Wesley, who is believed to have been inside Yebra's home during the incident. When the two men arrived, Yebra reportedly walked outside to their vehicle, where the suspects said there was an argument over the quality and quantity of the marijuana.
After a polygraph showed that Moore was being deceptive, Milsap said, Moore admitted that he and Donnelly made up the story about the knife. Investigators also said Moore gave several versions of how marijuana ended up in the truck.
At one point, Milsap said, Moore said the marijuana "may have ended up in the truck," then he said it was given to Donnelly, who then sped off. Finally, Milsap said, Moore admitted that the pair decided to steal the marijuana while on their way to Yebra's home.
Milsap said no knife was recovered, despite several searches.
Defense attorneys questioned whether the knife would have been recovered in light of the amount of time that had passed between the incident and the search. Responding officers hadn't heard about a knife and Milsap wasn't assigned the case until two days later. They asked Milsap if he had heard Yebra's version of events.
Yebra remains in critical condition at Gwinnett Medical Center.
"I was told he's probably never going to recover to a point (to give a statement)," Milsap said. "If he does start breathing on his own, he'll be in a vegetative state ... I'll never be able to get a statement from Spencer ... his side of the story."
Moore, according to attorneys, recently graduated from Job Corps and was waiting to enlist in the Army. Donnelly, they said, has two children.
Assistant District Attorney Karen Harris opposed bond, citing the seriousness of the charges and adding that Donnelly is already on bond for a criminal trespass charge in Auburn.
