Gun Owner Charged in Girl’s Death

A man accused of carelessly storing the handgun that authorities say a 6-year-old boy used to kill a classmate must stand trial on an involuntary manslaughter charge, a judge ruled Tuesday.

The boy was living with his 8-year-old brother, his 22-year-old uncle and defendant Jamelle James, 19, when he found James’ gun and took it to Buell Elementary School, prosecutors said. The boy used it Feb. 29 to fatally shoot first-grade classmate Kayla Rolland, police said.

District Judge John L. Conover called the boys’ living arrangements a time bomb.

“That’s absolutely as negligent as you get. What in the world did the defendant expect to happen” with a loaded gun in the house, Conover said.

“Who feeds them? Who clothes them? Who disciplines them? Who nurtures them? Who says, ‘I love you,’ before they go to bed and when they get up? No one,” he said.

The boy, who has not been charged, testified in the preliminary hearing Friday that he had seen James playing with the gun, a .32-caliber semiautomatic pistol, and demonstrated how James twirled it in his hands.

The boy said he had seen the gun and some quarters in a shoe box in James’ room.

He also said he remembered Kayla being shot, but when asked if he shot her, he shook his head “no,” and blamed another boy to whom he said he had given the gun.

“I wasn’t playing with the gun, I wasn’t,” the boy said.

The judge bound James over for trial at the conclusion of the preliminary hearing Tuesday.

Defense lawyers pointed to James’ roommate and the boy’s uncle, Sir Marcus Winfrey, as the owner of the gun.

“So Marcus Winfrey was buying the bullet, buying the holster. Who’s gun do you think it was?” attorney Bob Polasek said. “I think it’s clear.”

Federal grand jurors last month indicted James; Winfrey, 22; and Robert Lee Morris III, 19, all of nearby Mount Morris Township, on drug and weapons charges.

The boys’ mother is facing child neglect charges.

She had left her sons at the house because she was evicted from her home about nine days before the shooting.