Published: September 24, 2009 11:52 pm      

WOOD SHOOTING: Murder suspect expected back soon

Fugitive in Texas may be returned by early October

The second suspect in the murder of a Falls man may be on his way back to town soon.

During a brief hearing in Niagara County Court in Lockport on Thursday, Assistant District Attorney Claudette Caldwell said Phillip “Country” Holloway could be in front of Judge Matthew J. Murphy III by the first week in October.

Holloway, 21, is charged along with Darrius “D” Molson, 26, with gunning down Deion Wood, 27, 563 24th St., as he sat on the porch of a home in the 1900 block of Ferry Avenue in the early morning hours of June 13.

Molson was taken into custody in the Falls days after the shooting. Holloway fled to his home state of Texas and was picked up there July 13.

After first saying he would return to face the charges here, Holloway apparently changed his mind and fought extradition. Although he has now been ordered to be returned here, Texas authorities are first trying to resolve criminal charges he is facing there.

Molson, who is jailed in lieu of bail of $150,000 cash or $300,000 property, appeared before Murphy on Thursday and his attorney agreed to allow investigators to take a DNA sample from him. He has been indicted by a Niagara County grand jury and pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and a single count of criminal possession of a weapon.

Falls police investigators have said that Holloway told them in a Texas jailhouse interview that he killed Wood.

“We sent Detective Lt. Bill Thomson and Detective Tom Ewing down there,” Falls Detective Capt. Ernest Palmer said. “They interviewed Holloway and he confessed to his role in the killing of Deion Wood.”

Officers initially responded to a call of “shots fired” and found Wood in front of the home where he had been sitting with a woman. Witnesses said two suspects had approached Wood and one opened fire with what was reported to be a silver handgun.

Holloway has reportedly told investigators that he “was the shooter.”

Wood was on parole for a previous criminal conviction, but detectives had said little, before Holloway’s arrest, about a possible motive for the murder. Palmer now says the motive appears to have been retribution.

“(Holloway) said that Deion had robbed him of $1,200 and struck him in the head a few days (before the slaying),” Palmer said. “We had been looking into retribution as a motive.”