GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - A Grand Rapids man facing life in prison for a 2013 murder has rejected a plea deal in a 2018 case that accuses him of killing a witness to the earlier homicide.
Instead, 27-year-old Cameron Davon Wright has opted to take his chances at trial early next year.
Wright is charged with open murder, two weapons offenses and being a habitual felony offender in the shooting death earlier this year of Curtis Swift Jr.
Swift’s body was found Jan. 19 inside a home on the city’s Northwest Side. Investigators say Swift was a witness to the August, 2013 shooting death of Andre Davis.
Grand Rapids police arrested Wright for the Davis homicide on Jan. 19 – the same day Swift turned up dead.
A Kent County jury deliberated less than 30 minutes in October before finding Wright guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Davis.
The former standout athlete at Grand Rapids Christian High School was shot in the head while in a car on South Division Avenue near Franklin Street.
Investigators say the Aug. 25, 2013 shooting stemmed from an altercation hours earlier at a Northeast Side social club.
Investigators say Wright fired several shots from a passing car, striking Davis, who was not the intended target. Swift was with Wright when the shots were fired.
Police searched for leads in the murder; the case was featured in a Silent Observer billboard campaign. Wright, meanwhile, was sent to prison in 2014 on three felony convictions unrelated to the murder.
He was released on parole in December of 2017. Wright came back to Grand Rapids and was considered a person of interest in the Davis murder from 2013.
Wright, worried what Swift might tell police, killed him at a home on Straight Avenue north of Sibley Street NW, investigators said. Police found Swift's body while conducting a welfare check.
Police launched an extensive search for Wright after Swift’s body was found. He was arrested later that day by the FBI Fugitive Task Force during a high-risk traffic stop on the city’s Southeast Side.
Swift, 26, grew up in Grand Rapids and attended East Kentwood High School. He was the father of two children. Wright was charged with Swift’s murder in May. A judge in July determined there was enough evidence to send the case to Kent County Circuit Court.
During a plea hearing on Thursday, Nov. 29, Wright rejected an offer from the Kent County Prosecutor’s Office that would have allowed him to plead guilty to second-degree murder for Swift’s death.
A jury trial before Kent County Circuit Court Judge Mark Trusock is set for early January.
The judge delayed Wright’s sentencing in the Davis murder until after the second trial is wrapped up. Wright is being held without bond in the Kent County Jail.
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