EAST LANSING — Two additional people have been charged in connection with the murder of a Michigan State University student in October.
Isai Berrones, 22, was shot and killed just before 3 a.m. Oct. 12 at the 25 East apartment complex in the 2500 block of Chandler Street in East Lansing.
A Mississippi man, 30-year-old Steven Washington, was charged with murder, unlawful concealed carry and a felony firearms enhancement in connection with Berrones' death.
Steven Washington (Photo: Courtesy of Ingham County Jail)
Ivan Keener, a 21-year-old MSU student, was charged with accessory after the fact to a felony, aggravated assault and assault and battery. His cousin, Angela Kelly, 28, also was charged with accessory after the fact in a felony. Kelly and Washington were in a relationship at the time of Berrones' death.
Keener was granted immunity after he agreed to testify against Washington.
Multiple people testified Thursday in a hearing to determine if there was enough evidence for Washington to stand trial on the murder charge. East Lansing District Court Judge Richard Ball ruled there was enough evidence.
Berrones was a senior at MSU majoring in food science. He is originally from Alamo, Texas.
The argument
Keener, a 21-year-old MSU student, testified that he was sitting on a friend's porch when the friend and two women he didn't know approached them. The women were yelling, saying he shouldn't have left them at the bar, Keener said.
The argument escalated, and, Keener said, at some point, he told the women he was going to call his cousins to beat them up.
Keener said he didn't want to fight a girl or be involved with the fight, but he wanted his cousins to assault them because of the argument.
"I wanted them to fight," Keener said. "I knew my cousins would win."
Washington's attorney, Brendon Basiga, tried to get Keener to say he wanted to see the women badly hurt, but Keener denied that. He repeated: "I wanted them to fight."
Keener said he called his cousin and asked her if she would be willing to fight the women. His cousin agreed and showed up to Keener's friend's house with her sister, Angela Kelly, and Angela's boyfriend, Washington.
Using a GPS tracker, they found the women's apartment, at 25 East in East Lansing. Keener called them and asked them to come out, and, when they did, Kelly and her sister began to fight them, he testified.
One of the women testified that Kelly and her sister ended up "punching her, pulling her hair and kicking her." She was face-down on the ground, trying to protect her face from the attack, she said.
Then she heard a gunshot.
East Lansing police investigate a fatal shooting at the 25 East apartment complex near Michigan State University. (Photo: Kara Berg/Lansing State Journal)
Keener kept himself away from the fight. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Berrones jumping over a fence in front of an apartment.
Keener asked him if he wanted to fight, and Berrones didn't respond, Keener testified. He said he saw Berrones "fumbling with something in his hands that looked like a knife."
Keener turned and started running, yelling "he's got a knife," he testified.
When he looked back again, Washington and Berrones were standing face to face, like they were in a standoff, Keener said. He said he saw the knife in Berrones' hand and saw the hand with the knife move toward Washington.
Then the gunshot came.
Keener said he hadn't seen Washington pull out the gun and hadn't heard him rack the gun. He didn't even know Washington had a gun with him.
Berrones fell to the ground, and Keener said he took off running to grab his cousins and go. The foursome took off in their car.
Police pronounced Berrones dead on the scene. Washington fled and was arrested 10 days later in Grove City, Ohio.
Just before Ball bound the case over, Basiga told him the evidence in the case, namely, Keener's testimony, was "questionable at best, mendacious at worst."
Contact Kara Berg at 517-377-1113 or kberg@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @karaberg95.
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