Sept. 24, 2001 – Kenrick Maynard shot down Adolph Hyman Sr. on a Savan street and then stood over him firing shot after shot into his body from an assault rifle, witnesses testified in the opening day of Maynard's trial Monday.
Maynard is charged with first-degree murder and various firearm and assault charges related to events in July 1999. If convicted of the first-degree murder of Hyman, he will spend life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Assistant Attorney General Lofton Holder presented evidence Monday that Maynard was involved in a fight at the St. John Fourth of July celebration in 1999. Maynard was stabbed several times in the fight, which involved Kimba George and Leslie Hyman, one of Adolph Hyman's sons, witnesses testified.
Leslie Hyman testified Monday that he was outside the Friendly Bar in Savan on July 26, 1999, when Maynard approached him from behind and shot him five or six times. He was wounded in the arm, the leg and the side of his chest, he said as he showed jurors some of his scars.
Adolph Hyman Sr., who was in Atlanta at the time of the shooting, returned to St. Thomas after learning that his son had been wounded, according to testimony from Maria Weekes, the elder Hyman's long-time girlfriend.
On July 28, 1999, Weekes testified, she was walking down General Gade with Adolph Hyman Sr. and Adolph Hyman Jr. when Maynard approached them in the area of the Red Ball Grocery. Maynard opened fire with what police later determined to be an AK-47 assault rifle, hitting her in the foot as she tried to get out of the way, she told the court.
Maynard then shot Adolph Hyman Sr. as he tried to run away, then stood over his body pumping shots into him, Weekes said.
"This man roll up and give him seven more shots," she said, pointing to Maynard, who sat with defense attorney Stephen Brusch. After Maynard left the scene in a car and ambulance crews arrived, she said, she went over to her dead boyfriend. "I held his head in my lap," she said. "My life is gone with him."
In questioning of witnesses, Brusch noted that Maynard had been stabbed repeatedly in the Fourth of July fight with the relatives of Adolph Hyman Sr. and that Leslie Hyman was carrying an unlicensed .380-caliber handgun at the time he was shot.
Brusch also noted that Leslie Hyman did not report the Fourth of July fight to police, that he did not tell investigators who had shot him on July 26, and that he was never charged with carrying what he admitted was an illegal firearm.
Maynard, who has also used the name Samuel Blyden, was arrested in Georgia last year on a warrant in connection with the murder charge.
The murder trial is expected to continue Tuesday before Territorial Court Judge Rhys Hodge.
