By Lauren Gregory
Chattanooga Times Free Press (Tennessee)
Copyright 2006 Chattanooga Publishing Company
Hamilton County General Sessions Judge Robert Moon ruled Wednesday that prosecutors have enough evidence against former Chattanooga firefighter Marvin Nicholson Jr. to ask a grand jury to indict him on kidnapping and murder charges.
Mr. Nicholson, 33, was arrested Oct. 4 in connection with the Oct. 3 abduction and shooting death of 15-year-old James Citizen. After finding Mr. Citizen dead near 10030 Sims Harris Road at about 12:30 that afternoon, authorities discovered he was the same young man who had been kidnapped at gunpoint near his Dodson Avenue home just an hour earlier.
During a preliminary hearing in Mr. Nicholson’s case Wednesday morning, Hamilton County Sheriff’s Detective Robert Starnes testified that the defendant’s name surfaced in investigations when he called authorities about 21/2 hours after Mr. Citizen’s slaying to add information to a robbery report that Mr. Nicholson had made the day before.
Mr. Nicholson wanted to note that, in addition to the other items he reported stolen from his home, a gun and gun belt were missing, Detective Starnes said.
A “police or security-type” gun belt was found near the body, the detective said.
Two witnesses to the crimes — Mr. Citizen’s sister Ursula at the kidnapping site and Karim Jooma near where the body was found — identified Mr. Nicholson in a six-man photo lineup. The witnesses said Mr. Nicholson had been driving a light blue Ford Taurus with the tag removed.
Mr. Nicholson, whose apartment on Elmendorf Street is just a few blocks from where the kidnapping occurred, rented a light blue Ford Taurus at 9:51 the morning of the kidnapping and returned it at 6:57 p.m., Detective Starnes said.
Defense attorneys Johnny Houston and Myrlene Marsa questioned the makeup of the photo lineup used to identify their client, which consisted only of pictures of bald men. Mr. Nicholson had been bald in the driver’s license photo authorities used in the lineup, Mr. Houston said, but recently has been sporting “quite a head of hair.”
When Ursula Citizen took the stand, Ms. Marsa pointed out that she had told investigators her brother’s kidnapper resembled Chattanooga Police Officer Shawn Cunningham, who was not included in the photo lineup.
According to earlier testimony from Detective Starnes, Officer Cunningham had signed in for a 1 p.m. grand jury session the day of the killing, which is believed to have occurred between 12:15-12:30 p.m.
On top of that, Ms. Citizen said, the suspect’s physical build did not match Officer Cunningham’s.
“I know (Mr. Nicholson is) the man that I saw,” she said.
Mr. Nicholson was fired from the Chattanooga Fire Department on Oct. 10. Since his arrest, he has remained in custody at the Hamilton County Jail without bond.
Judge Moon denied a request for bond at the conclusion of Wednesday’s hearing.
“The premeditativeness and deliberateness of this murder — to rent a car, to remove the tag, to have a gun, to force someone into a car and end their life — shows a malignant spirit,” Judge Moon said.
The defense plans to appeal that ruling in Hamilton County Criminal Court while awaiting grand jury proceedings, Ms. Marsa said