TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A Tallahassee man who recently moved from Jacksonville has been arrested in the death of his roommate, which police said occurred during an attempted drug robbery of another man.
Le Keian Inarius Woods, 19, is facing a charge of second degree felony murder in the Nov. 3, 2017, death of Derrick L. Curtis Jr., who also had recently moved from Jacksonville, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Woods was booked into the Leon County Detention Center on Thursday. No bond amount was listed.
Curtis died shortly after he was shot at 1112 South Magnolia Dr., Tally Square Apartments.
Curtis had recently moved to Tallahassee from Jacksonville, his grandmother, who lived in Jacksonville, told investigators. She said that Curtis and Woods were roommates.
On November 5, Curtis' grandmother told investigators that Woods had come to her residence the night of November 4 and had given her Curtis' cellphone.
She said Woods told her that Curtis was killed while they were at a party but provided no reason why he had Curtis' phone.
In an interview, Woods did not provide Tallahassee Police Department investigators a reason why he never called police after the shooting, the court document said.
Woods said the shooting occurred when two groups of people at a party began fighting. He said he heard gun shots, believed the shooting occurred behind him and believed Curtis was shot.
But investigators discounted that version of the death and said they believe that Curtis deleted a phone number from the phone before giving it to the grandmother.
Recovering the phone number, investigators tracked a man who agreed to sell the roommates 14 grams of weed but who, when he arrived at the apartment complex, said they attempted to rob him and that is when Curtis was shot.
The man who came to sell the drugs said that when the rooommates tried to rob him that he and they exchanged gunshots and that he did not call police because he did not believe anyone had been hit.
Investigators wrote that evidence based on where the cars of the people involved in the incident were parked it appears that the man who came to sell the drugs and Curtis were shooting at each other.
The State Attorney's Office declined to prosecute the man who came to sell the drugs based on his claim of self-defense.
