Searights homicide suspect held on all charges
One suspect in the death of a 27-year-old man in the village of Searights was held for court on homicide charges Tuesday, although witnesses testified they never saw him with a gun.
Christian Tramaine Carpenter, 23, of Highland Park, Michigan, is charged with criminal homicide and conspiracy to commit criminal homicide. Police are continuing the search for Vincent Irving Jones, 25, of Charleston, West Virginia, who is facing equal charges.
Witnesses testified that Trenton Grooms broke into the Searights apartment May 24, calling for his recent ex-girlfriend, Jillian Rozak. He was found dead a short distance away in his vehicle on Searights-Herbert Road, where he had crashed into a tree with a single gunshot wound to the leg and a cut on his lip. Autopsy results presented at the hearing showed Grooms died of blood loss from the gunshot wound.
Rozak testified Grooms was drinking and texting her frantically that night. She claimed he was trying to “lure her” from the Searights apartment by saying he was in a car accident in the woods and possibly broke his hip. She testified she was panicking and crying, planning to look for him when he unexpectedly appeared outside.
She testified she did not know the defendants well, and met them the night before at a club. Carpenter and Jones, known to her as “Cuz” and “J.R.” respectively, went to Karen Clevenger’s apartment that night with Rozak. Rozak did not live in the apartment, but stayed there often, she said.
Clevenger testified she had asked Carpenter and Jones to leave so she could go to bed when she went into her bedroom and made a phone call. She said she saw Grooms’ vehicle pull up, and told the others he was there. She said she did not feel threatened by him, and expected him to knock on the door.
“I didn’t expect that anything like this was going to happen,” she said.
In another part of the apartment, Rozak testified she screamed for everyone to shut the lights off and close the windows. She testified Grooms began banging on the door and calling for her.
Clevenger said she did not hear any commotion from the other room, and continued her phone call. A few minutes later, she testified Grooms punched out her bedroom window and stepped inside.
“I jumped out of bed and said, ‘Trenton, what are you doing?’ and he was saying ‘Where the f is Gigi [Rozak]?’ and I grabbed my baby and ran,” she said.
Rozak testified she heard a gunshot, panicked and fled out the window with Clevenger’s other child.
“I was really scared of Trenton so I just ran as soon as I saw him,” Rozak testified. “But he just didn’t deserve to die.”
Clevenger testified she heard four gunshots and Grooms say, ‘Wow, you shot me.’ Before she escaped with her 2-year-old out a window, she said she saw Grooms attempt to leave through the front door and Carpenter and Jones assaulting him.
Neither witness reported seeing the shots fired, but both women said they only saw Jones with a gun.
Carpenter’s attorney, Assistant Public Defender Rob Harper, argued that his client’s charges should be dismissed because there was no evidence presented that Carpenter killed or conspired to kill Grooms. Assistant District Melinda Dellarose argued that Carpenter’s conduct in allegedly attacking Grooms as he tried to flee established a “web of evidence” that validated the charges.
Magisterial District Judge Wendy Dennis ordered Carpenter to stand trial on all charges. He is lodged in Fayette County Prison without bond.