Prosecutor: 2016 Elyria double murder a 'hit' by angry rival drug dealers

ELYRIA — The January 2016 killings of Michael "LuLu" Lewis and Fannie Thomas-Lewis had "all the hallmarks of a hit." "Just a good, old-fashioned hit," Assistant Lorain County Prosecutor Tony Cillo told a Lorain County Common Pleas jury Tuesday as he opened the state's case against an alleged gang member accused of shooting and killing two competitors. Jocquez Ross, 29, of Lorain, faces charges of aggravated murder, felonious assault, having weapons under disability and tampering with evidence. He is being held in the Lorain County Jail on $2 million bond. Both Michael "LuLu" Lewis and Fannie Thomas-Lewis were executed, shot twice each from behind including at least once each in the head, Cillo said. Michael Lewis, 32, was in the driver's seat of a rented Chevrolet Traverse SUV with New York plates, and Fannie Thomas-Lewis, 22, was in the passenger seat when they were found dead on the rainy evening of Jan. 31, 2016. Both had slumped toward the middle of the front seat and at first appeared to be asleep, one witness told police. Further investigation by Elyria police later revealed that Michael Lewis and his wife were "large-scale drug dealers," Cillo said. Half a kilogram of heroin was found in one of their apartments, and another half-kilogram and $90,000 found in another apartment they used, he said. And despite Ross being the only one to go to trial so far for the killings and "in it up to his eyeballs," Cillo said, prosecutors aren't claiming he acted alone. It was also believed by competing drug dealers that Michael Lewis was a "snitch," informing police about the illegal activities of other drug dealers, Cillo said. Shaundale "Tug" Brown and his brother, Marquel "Punkin'" Brown, believed Lewis had informed on them for dealing drugs after Shaundale Brown was arrested while in possession of more than 750 grams of cocaine, he said. Ross, who also goes by "Joc" or "King Joc" may have offered to rob the Lewises on behalf of the Brown brothers, Cillo said. All three men were believed to be part of a drug gang known as "Money Over Everything" that was the focus of a major drug investigation by Elyria police later in 2016. (Shaundale Brown, 31, is serving an eight-year sentence for drug crimes in Mansfield Correction Institution. Marquel Brown, 30, is serving his own seven-year sentence in a federal prison in Pennsylvania as well as a concurrent two-year prison sentence for felony drug crimes out of Lorain County, according to court records). The Brown brothers also have a sister, Myesha Anderson, whom Cillo said lent Ross a gun and on Jan. 20, 2016, texted him that she wanted it back. Ross replied that he "still needs it" — only 11 days before the Lewises were murdered, Cillo said in court. Cillo said evidence will show Ross' alibi that he was playing basketball at North Rec in Elyria the night of the killing is false. Ross, his relatives and friends also allegedly tried to get Ross' girlfriend to give him an alibi through jail calls, letters and intermediaries until she and her attorney approached prosecutors with evidence Ross tried to manipulate her, he said. "Don't trust your lawyer" and "Keep your (expletive) mouth shut," were some of the messages Ross sent Brooke Nolen, Cillo said in court. He also pleaded with her to help him get out of jail — even asking an acquaintance to lie and tell Nolen that Ross had tried to kill himself in jail to elicit sympathy, prosecutors allege. In a brief opening statement, defense attorney Michael Camera said the state has nothing to link Ross to the killings. "There's no fingerprints, there's no DNA, there's no admissions, there's no evidence connecting my client to the murders," he said. Prosecutors "have this person saying this, and this person saying that" but no hard evidence, Camera said. Camera said evidence does show Shaundale and Marquel Brown were "really, really mad at Michael Lewis" because "the word on the street is Michael Lewis is a snitch." Shaundale Brown, he said, had bought cocaine from Michael Lewis and Fannie Thomas-Lewis -- the same cocaine police later found in the trunk of his Chevrolet Camaro. Because of that, the Browns thought Michael Lewis "snitched them out," giving them a motive to have him silenced, Camera told jurors. Otherwise, the state's case "revolves around supposition and people's statements who may or may not be believable," he said. Following opening statements, members of the jury did a walking tour around the apartment complex parking lot where the Lewises' bodies were found. Bailiff Rob Bennett pointed out the intersecting roads and a couple of specific apartments to the jurors, who were under umbrellas in the rain — similar to the weather conditions Elyria police were confronted with when they arrived on the scene shortly after 10 p.m. Prosecutors and defense attorneys followed behind the jury to observe what is called a jury view. Elyria police officers provided security. Back in court, the prosecution opened its case with the original 911 caller and several Elyria police officers who were first on scene or called to the scene that night. Mitchell Orr called 911 to report he heard "three to four shots" just after 10 p.m. Looking outside his apartment, he said he saw a black male about 5 feet 7 inches or 5 feet 8 inches tall with either bushy hair or a hat on get out of the Traverse and run off. As the man tried to run from the scene, he tripped over his own pants and fell face-first to the asphalt before getting up and running off. Orr testified the man was wearing a dark hoodie, dark pants and had green underwear on, and shortly after that saw a Ford Escape leave the apartment complex from the same direction in which the suspected shooter had run. Officer Joseph Figula Jr., a night shift patrol officer who also is a certified crime scene technician, and a trainee officer were first on the scene, Figula testified. He recalled checking Michael and Fannie Lewis for signs of life, but found none, he testified. The SUV, with the Lewises' bodies inside, was towed to the Elyria Police Department to get it out of the rain. It was processed for evidence in a garage there because "rain can destroy evidence," Figula testified. Officers found three 9 mm shell casings on the floor of the SUV, as well as a spent bullet, blood evidence, several water bottles, three cellphones and Fannie Thomas-Lewis' purse, which contained more than $740 in cash and a fourth cellphone. A total of $1,500 was found in the car and Thomas-Lewis also had jewelry on, Cillo said. The valuables left behind led detectives to rule out robbery as a motive for the slayings, he said. Over the next two years, detectives also extracted digital evidence from the cellphones found in the car as well as Ross' cellphone and more than half a dozen other phones using search warrants and owners' consent, former Elyria police detective Dan Sumpter testified. He testified that he, other Elyria detectives and the Internet Crimes Against Children task force did multiple searches for another cellphone they believed Ross discarded in a wooded area near Black River High Meadows and the old Elyria Walmart soon after the murders, but never found it. Ross was charged with the murders in January 2017, while being held in the Lorain County Jail on drug charges related to the Money Over Everything gang. Because the death penalty is a possibility if Ross is found guilty, the jury first will decide if Ross is guilty. If he is convicted of aggravated murder, the trial will enter a second sentencing phase where jurors will vote whether to recommend the death penalty. Testimony resumes at 1 p.m. today. Photographer Bruce Bishop contributed to this story. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him at @daveobrienCT on Twitter.