Rico M. Chandler, 42, was arraigned Dec. 12 in the June 8, 2017 shooting death of Dominique Lee in Ypsilanti. Chandler and Marcus Walker are charged in the homicide.
YPSILANTI, MI – After viewing surveillance footage and hearing detailed testimony from an ex-girlfriend, a judge on Thursday forwarded to trial court the case of a prison inmate accused of killing a man while on parole in 2017.
Rico M. Chandler, 42, is accused of killing Dominique Lee, 28, at an Ypsilanti housing complex on June 8, 2017 in a suspected narcotics-related shooting.
Judge J. Cedric Simpson of 14A-1 District Court moved the case forward to trial court Thursday, Jan. 17 after four witnesses testified in a preliminary examination.
Chandler had been out on parole for a year at the time of the shooting and absconded the same month, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections.
He was sent back to prison in November 2017 when he pleaded no contest to three counts of assaulting, resisting or obstructing police and six weapons charges in a separate September 2017 Ypsilanti Township incident, prison records show.
He's now charged in the 2017 killing of Dominique Lee in Ypsilanti.
Ypsilanti Police officer Ashley Kofahl was dispatched at 2:40 a.m. June 8, 2017 in the 900 block of West Michigan Avevnue in the Sauk Trail Pointe housing complex for a report of shots fired, and a car crash.
A vehicle had crashed into the building and the victim had a gunshot wound to his head, Kofahl said at Chandler's preliminary hearing Thursday.
Robert Peto, a retired Ypsilanti detective, was off duty during the incident, but was asked to report to the scene, which he described as an area filled with broken glass that appeared to have come from a side window of the vehicle. He found "a lot of blood" inside the vehicle.
Several surveillance videos showed a Chevrolet Impala entering the complex at about 1:58 a.m. before a man in a Detroit Red Wings jacket exited the vehicle.
Footage then showed the victim's vehicle running into a building in the complex. Assistant Washtenaw County Prosecutor John Vella presented the videos in court Thursday.
Lee was killed about 2:45 a.m.
Michigan parole officer Brian Teske, who met with Chandler twice a month, said he recognized him in the video by his height, build, the way he walks with "his feet outward" and his Red Wings jacket.
"He came in on March 15, 2017 to do a drug test and he was wearing (the jacket) that day," Teske testified.
Chandler's girlfriend at the time of the homicide, Teneca Powell, also testified, swaying in her seat at the witness stand.
The day of the murder, Chandler came to her home, where he would occasionally stay, and stood at the foot of her bed at 3:08 a.m., Powell said, adding he was wearing a white, sleeveless shirt, black shorts down to the knee with cargo-like pockets with a drawstring that came down the side.
She said she was half-asleep, watching TV when he handed her a gun and "five or six eight-balls" of crack.
"Rico said he couldn't talk on the phone," so she met him on Michigan Avenue between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. on June 8, 2017. He was wearing a different outfit.
He was wearing a pair of pants and a Detroit Lions jacket, she said.
Marcus Walker, 30, another man charged in the homicide, set up a deal to buy drugs, Powell said. Walker currently faces one count of open murder, a count of armed robbery and a count of unarmed robbery.
"They (were) standing there and he said Dominique pointed a gun at him so he shot him," Powell said.
Chandler shook his head at Powell in the courtroom.
"He just said, he couldn't leave (the 900 block) because he had to make sure no one was going to talk," adding the exterior of his forearms were bloody from jumping a wall, and his knees appeared scraped and bloody as well.
Vella showed her security footage of the man in a Red Wings coat at the parole office.
And again, she identified him in footage at the housing complex based on the clothes he wore, the shape of his head, the way he walks, the Red Wings jacket, the drawstring and "just everything," she said.
Chandler faces one count of open murder, two counts of armed robbery and seven weapons charges in the Lee death.
He is due in Washtenaw County Trial Court on Feb. 25 for a pretrial hearing at 1:30 p.m. before Judge David S. Swartz.
Marcus Walker refused a plea deal and waived the preliminary examination.