Steven Kelley
Jordan CraigA judge has reset the jury trial of a 24-year-old man accused of killing a pastor in November 2014.
Judge Tom Greenholtz on Monday set an Oct. 18 trial date for Steven Kelley in Hamilton County Criminal Court. Kelley faces charges of felony murder and especially aggravated robbery.
His co-defendant, Jordan Craig, 27, faces the same charges but does not yet have a trial date. Greenholtz scheduled her next appearance for Sept. 27, the same day as Kelley's pretrial checkup.
On Nov. 13, 2014, police say, investigators found Kenneth Johnson, associate minister at Mount Canaan Baptist Church, veteran and former convict, beaten to death in a ditch off Blackford Street. After searching his car, investigators found his cellphone and traced a series of messages to Craig and Kelley.
At the time of the slaying, Craig told police she met Johnson to buy illegal drugs, dropping Kelley off in a nearby hiding spot just in case, according to her affidavit. When Johnson asked for sexual favors, she said, Kelley came to her defense.
Kelley, on the other hand, said he stowed away in Craig's back seat as she drove to an alley of her choosing to meet Johnson. He got out of the car after the pastor propositioned her. Then, when the pastor started beating him with a crowbar, he fought back, according to records.
After searching the crime scene, police said Johnson's wallet and keys were missing. They also never found evidence of illegal drugs, leading them to believe the pair lured Johnson into the alley to rob him.
But, as attorneys pointed out during a preliminary hearing in 2014, police found "suspicious" text messages on Johnson's phone that suggested he also dealt drugs to other people.
"Give the court, if you would, an example of some of those text messages," said Craig's attorney, Ben McGowan, records show.
Matthew Puglise, an investigator with the Chattanooga Police Department, described a message in which Johnson said he had 15 unidentified drugs on him at the time.
Puglise saw a few of those messages in 2014, he said, but never made contact with the other parties, records show.
During his closing arguments in 2014, Kelley's attorney, Garth Best, suggested there may be a chain-of- custody problem since the car sat several hours before police located it.
"Who's to say that when the car went home that the family didn't say, 'Oh, gosh, there's drugs in here, I'm removing those,' and now they think they're stolen," Best said.
After hearing the evidence, General Sessions Judge Clarence Shattuck sent the case to the grand jury but sliced Kelley's and Craig's aggravated robbery bonds in half.
Kelley is being held on a $750,000 total bond in Hamilton County Jail. Craig has no bond amount and is being held at the Silverdale Detention Center, according to officials there.
Contact staff writer Zack Peterson at 423-757-6347 or zpeterson@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @zackpeterson918.