5 murder suspects appear in court for preliminary hearing following the shooting death of a 14-year-old

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - Deontae Kimbrough, Teriana Thompson, Ryan Kidd, Kentrell freeman, and Kelvin Estell were all in court Wednesday for a preliminary hearing.

All of them are charged with murder following the shooting death of 14-year-old Daniel Blackmon.

Blackmon was shot and killed outside of a home on Cheshire drive back in February. Investigators say Blackmon wasn’t the target

“This is a complicated case. There are a lot of co-defendants. There’s a lot of evidence. Ultimately, at the end of the day, we have a 14-year-old boy that was shot to death. So we’re going to do everything we can for those who did this to be held responsible,” Assistant District Attorney Louis Walker said.

In court, we found out that three guns were fired, but only two of those guns were recovered. Investigators say the reason why the suspects were allegedly there could be gang-related.

Allegedly, a text was sent from one of the suspect’s phones with the address and four of them traveled to that location. When they got there, three of them allegedly got out of the car and two of them started shooting.

All of this was caught on surveillance cameras, but detectives admitted that they can’t make out who was in the footage. One defensive attorney told FOX10 after the hearing, that the prosecution doesn’t have enough evidence that links to his client.

“It was shocking to me how little evidence they have on Deontae Kimbrough. The only evidence I heard that they had is co-conspirators that are charged with this crime allegedly stated that my client was in the vehicle,” Defense Attorney Chase Dearman said.

Blackmon’s family was front row for the entire hearing and prosecutors tell FOX10 they plan on being there every step of the way.

“It’s absolutely very difficult, but they showed great poise. And the family has indicated to me that they will be here throughout the proceedings,” Walker said.

After the hearing, a woman was kicked out after court officers say she threw up gang signs.

Meanwhile, all of those cases will be presented to the grand jury. The sixth suspect, Sidney Collins did not have his hearing Wednesday because he’s in federal custody on a separate charge.

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