Were they all killed over an Xbox?
The two men charged in the grisly quadruple murder of a family in upstate Troy had stolen an Xbox video game system and flat-screen TV from the victims’ home during their rampage, according to reports.
James W. White, 38, and Justin C. Mann, 24, were arraigned Friday on nine counts of first-degree murder and four counts of second-degree murder — as well as charges of burglary, robbery and possession of stolen property.
Police have not yet given a motive for the brutal killings of Shanta Myers, 36, two of her three children — Jeremiah Myers, 11, and Shanise Myers, 5 — and her girlfriend, Brandi Mells, 22.
A relative of Shanta Myers told The Daily Beast last week that Mann was friends with Mells.
“I never seen him before a day in my life … but some of my family members recognize him as Brandi’s friend,” Myers’ nephew, Khalif Coleman, told the news site. “He supposedly always hung out with her.”
A review of Mells’ Facebook posts shows she searched online classified ads for video games and toys for Myers’ children in the days before she was killed. Around the same time, Mells tried to sell car tires for $200 in a local Facebook group.
“Is anybody still adopting kids for xmas i have a 5, 11, an [sic] 15 year old,” she wrote Dec. 19 in one Albany-area Facebook group. “Pockets are tight dont really have it anything helps. Games toys clothes shoes.”
Mells was specifically looking for Xbox and PlayStation games, The Daily Beast reported.
“If anyone have ps3 or xbox1 systems with games for my two boys they don’t have anything for Christmas anything help,” Mells wrote Dec. 17.
The four victims were found bound with their throats slit on Dec. 26 inside their basement apartment at 158 Second Ave., but authorities believe they were killed five days earlier. Police found two knives near the bodies.
Eight of the first-degree murder counts handed up by a Rensselaer County grand jury are related to the robbery and burglary charges, the Albany Times Union reported.
The suspects — both of Schenectady — face one count each of burglary and robbery and two counts each of criminal possession of stolen property.
They pleaded not guilty to all the charges and were returned to the Rensselaer County jail, where they are being held without bail.
“We’re very happy the grand jury came back the way they did,” Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove said after the arraignments, the Troy Record reported. “There’s nothing good about this case. … This is just a tragic situation.”
A property manager conducting a welfare check at the request of the two women’s relatives found the victims’ bodies and called police.
Myers’ oldest son and sole survivor, 15-year-old Isaiah Smith, was away in Massachusetts during the bloodbath.
A grand jury indictment had been expected on Jan. 3 but wasn’t returned until two days later – a day after City Court Judge Christopher Mayer ordered the suspects released.
But the new first-degree murder charge against White promptly landed him back in jail without bail. A parole hold placed on Mann also kept him in jail without bail.
Mann pleaded guilty in March 2014 to an armed robbery in Queens, where he used to live. He was sentenced to five years behind bars and paroled on June 1, according to state records.
White pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2001 for his part in the stabbing death of a Bronx man and served nearly nine years in prison before being paroled.
Defense attorney Greg Cholakis said Abelove’s move to keep White in jail violated the intent of state law that requires a defendant to be indicted or a preliminary hearing to be held.
“We do not hold a citizen in jail based on a piece of paper for more than six days,” Cholakis said, referring to the new first-degree murder charge, the Times Union reported.
The six days he cited was the time allowed for evidence to be presented against a defendant. Cholakis said the DA could keep filing new charges to prolong the time a defendant would be held without ever seeing any of the evidence against him.
The new charge of first-degree murder filed against White was for allegedly killing 11-year-old Jeremiah during a burglary.
Chief Assistant District Attorney Jessica Hall argued that the new charge was based on a new theory of the crime – which would start another six-day countdown.