DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A Daytona Beach man booked Thursday is accused of taking part in a deadly drive-by shooting along Nova Road in May, according to the Daytona Beach Police Department.
Cory Crooms, 37, was arrested Wednesday, according to police. Investigators said he helped to hide the car used in the drive-by shooting May 31, near Bellevue Avenue, that killed Taj Butler.
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On the day of the shooting, police said a black Kia Optima was seen on surveillance video pulling up along the driver’s side of the sedan Butler was sitting in. Officers said people inside the Kia then opened fire on Butler.
Butler was taken to the hospital, where he later died.
According to an affidavit, Crooms tagged along with the Kia in a separate vehicle and helped the people inside — including Devonte Smokes, 29 — hide the car at a home along Ranney Avenue after the shooting.
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A witness contacted police on the day of the shooting, telling officers that Smokes had picked them up in a black Kia to stop at a convenience store and drive to his home at an apartment complex along Jimmy Ann Drive. Investigators said they followed Smokes’ path via traffic cameras and surveillance footage from the store and apartment complex, placing Smokes at his unit around 12:30 p.m.
After spending about an hour at the apartment, the witness told police Smokes received a phone call and said that he had to leave. Surveillance cameras at the apartment complex showed a black Kia leaving around 1:40 p.m., followed onto southbound Jimmy Ann Drive by a red Jeep that investigators believe Crooms was driving.
Come June 1, another witness told police they had observed a black Kia driving erratically behind the Ranney Avenue house on the day of the shooting, adding a different vehicle had parked in front of the home as if to prevent people on the street from seeing the Kia, according to the affidavit.
Detectives said they visited the house and located the Kia.
A person at the home said Crooms had called them using Smokes’ cellphone on the day of the shooting to ask if a vehicle could be parked behind the house and that any video from the home’s surveillance system be deleted after the vehicle arrived. That witness soon saw the black Kia show up and several people get out as Crooms stood beside the red Jeep parked nearby, police said.
Police said they found several spent .45 caliber shell casings in the car, the same caliber bullet used on the victim.
Police obtained a warrant for the surveillance footage from the home, according to the affidavit. In it, Crooms can be seen parking the Jeep in the front yard of the house and opening a side gate in order to let the black Kia hide behind the home, police said.
Crooms was arrested late Wednesday in the area of the 1800 block of Legends Lane, the affidavit states. He faces charges of fleeing or eluding a law enforcement officer at high speed, resisting an officer without violence and principal to premeditated first-degree murder. He is being held on no bond.
Smokes was already in custody — arrested May 31 on unrelated charges — when he was indicted June 28 on a charge of first-degree murder in connection to the drive-by, records show. Smokes pleaded not guilty to the murder charge on July 14.
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