Trial opens Monday for a man accused of serving as an accomplice in the December 2009 murder of a Vancouver man.
The trial of Derik L. Maples, 24, is expected to last five days in Clark County Superior Court Judge John Wulle’s courtroom. Jury selection begins Monday morning.
Maples is charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder.
He has been in jail since shortly after the night of Dec. 1, 2009, when he and Justin Tyler met victims Clement Adams and Tyshaun Foreman at the S&S Mart in the Rose Village neighborhood.
The killing was a result of a drug deal gone bad, police said.
According to court documents:
Maples stepped into Adams’ sedan during the transaction as Tyler waited outside. After Adams tried to pay for powder cocaine with counterfeit money, Maples got out of the car, telling Tyler that he had been robbed.
Tyler, who was completing the transaction for another drug dealer, panicked and fired his gun from a nearby alley, killing Adams, 45.
Foreman wasn’t hit by any of the four or five rounds.
The sedan continued about 100 feet south, where it crashed into the front steps of a home at 1909 E. 33rd St.
A surveillance video obtained later by Vancouver police showed one man walking out of the view of the S&S Mart’s surveillance camera. He returned on-screen and extended his right arm “back to the area he had just come from.” Immediately after the shooting, two men ran off, according to court documents.
The two suspects were apprehended by Vancouver police several days later.
Tyler, 23, pleaded guilty April 7 to second-degree murder and second-degree assault. Judge Wulle sentenced him to 32 years in prison.
Laura McVicker: 360-735-4516; http://www.twitter.com/col_courts; laura.mcvicker@columbian.com.
