A drug deal gone wrong led to the murder of a Colorado man over Labor Day weekend, Sheriff Eddie Hawkins said during a press conference Friday.
Seven suspects are charged in the case where a burned body was found in a vehicle Sept. 2 at Luxapalila Creek Park south of Columbus.
Hawkins said witness statements point to Elias Eugene Trudell, 23, of Colorado Springs, as the victim, though his office still awaits the results of a DNA analysis from the State Crime Lab to confirm that.
Jalen Young, 24, of Starkville, and Kenneth Jones, 20, of Columbus are both charged with Trudell’s murder, while Makye Butler, 20, and David Hall, 25, both of Columbus, are charged as accessories after the fact.
Isaac Harris, 19, and Malik Little, 22, both of Columbus, and Malachi Salus, 22, of Colorado Springs, are all charged with conspiracy to traffic a controlled substance.
Salus and Young were once “associates” and had stayed in contact, Hawkins said during the press conference at Lowndes County Adult Detention Center. Salus and Trudell hatched a plan to drive from Colorado to Columbus and sell Young counterfeit drugs.
When they arrived, they met at a residence in Lowndes County with Young and the five other suspects, all of whom had a plan of their own.
“(The local suspects’) plan was to steal their car, their drugs, their money, whatever else they had … and put (Salus and Trudell) to walking,” Hawkins said.
The eight men traveled in three separate vehicles to apartments on Yorkville Road, Hawkins said, where the local suspects discovered the drugs were fake. When they all left the apartments, Trudell, who was riding in a vehicle with Young and Jones, was fatally shot. Young and Jones drove the car to Luxapalila Creek Park and set fire to it with the body inside. Then they called Butler and Hall to come pick them up.
The motive for the shooting remains unclear, Hawkins said.
Salus, riding in a separate vehicle, was dropped off in a convenience store parking lot. Someone noticed him wandering around and helped him book a hotel room for the night, Hawkins said. Salus, trying to fly back to Colorado, called that person the next day for a ride to Golden Triangle Regional Airport.
After delivering Salus to the airport, The Good Samaritan noticed “something didn’t add up” and called Columbus police. Deputies, which by that time had evidence to suspect the burned car came from Colorado, intercepted Salus at his flight gate.
“That’s how the case started to unfold,” Hawkins said.
“This has been a very complex investigation, a very difficult case to investigate,” he added. “We had (to get) a case of ‘Who is it?’ and ‘Whodunit?’ to where we are today.”
Young, Jones, Butler and Hall all remain in jail. Salus, Harris and Little have been released on bond.
Hawkins said Young was out on bond after being indicted for a 2022 shooting in Oktibbeha County. Columbus officers arrested Hall this week for two other shootings, which Hawkins said allowed investigators to question his involvement in this case.
More charges may come in the case after it is presented to a grand jury, Hawkins said.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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