Co-defendant testifies that he saw Myers kill one of the three murder victims

MUNCIE, Ind. – His co-defendant testified Friday that he saw Devin Xavier Myers kill a 69-year-old Muncie man in an execution-style shooting.

Myers – accused of multiple murders, along with other charges including armed robbery and criminal confinement – is on trial in Delaware Circuit Court 5.

The 30-year-old Muncie man is accused of killing three members of a local family over a two-day period in July 2022. The case is expected to go before a jury next week.

On Friday, lead prosecutor Zach Craig presented the testimony of Daniel Jones Jr., a 29-year-old Muncie man who admitted that – on July 13, 2022 – he participated in an armed home invasion with Myers.

Two people — 69-year-old Malcolm Perdue and 51-year-old Kyndra Kay Swift — were shot and killed inside the home, in the 2900 block of South Liberty Street.

Craig and Delaware County Prosecutor Eric Hoffman have alleged that the murders were committed by Myers, who is also accused of fatally shooting 19-year-old Kyler Ryan Musick — Perdue’s grandson and Swift’s great-nephew — one day before the other murders.

More: Ex-girlfriend: Myers confessed to the teen’s murder, the body was dumped near the reservoir

On Friday, Jones, who faces the same charges as Myers in the Liberty Street case — said he had reluctantly agreed to join Myers in the armed robbery after being told there was $70,000 in the south side house.

He said that after he arrived on the scene, he tried to run away, but feared that Myers — who, he testified, had provided him with a gun — would kill him.

After breaking into the house around 4:30 a.m. and holding Swift and Musick’s mother at gunpoint, Jones said, he and Myers searched for Musick’s belongings in a back room and eventually found two guns, a “bag of pills” and a safe. .

Jones said he had accompanied Musick’s mother and a young child to another part of the house when he heard two gunshots from the back room.

According to the scenario Hoffman described in his opening statement on Tuesday, these were the shots that killed Swift.

Jones said that after the gunfire, he returned to the back room and saw Perdue — who had previously been sleeping on a couch — on his knees, with his back to Myers, who was pointing a gun at the older man.

“(Myers) shoots the guy in the head,” said Jones, who added that he then fled the house after grabbing the safe and other items.

A short time later he was arrested at a friend’s home.

Jones said he made no deal with prosecutors in exchange for his cooperation. However, he did sign an agreement stating that his testimony from Friday cannot be used against him.

Testimony revealed that Myers personally knew at least three people in the house at the time of the robbery: Swift, a 14-year-old girl, and Musick’s mother, who fled the house after hearing gunfire and went to a neighbor’s home ran. where she called 911.

Earlier on Friday, forensic pathologist Jolene Clouse testified that Perdue and Swift were both shot twice in the head.

Musick — reportedly killed in Myers’ backyard on July 12, 2022, before his body was dumped near Prairie Creek Reservoir — also died as a result of a gunshot to the head, Clouse said.

Pathologist attorney Joel Hand’s cross-examination seemed to suggest a theory that Musick had committed suicide. Myers’ ex-girlfriend testified Thursday that the suspect confessed to shooting the teen.

Thursday afternoon’s proceedings were interrupted when a friend of Musick began yelling and cursing at Myers in the courtroom and calling him a murderer.

Judge Thomas Cannon Jr. had the jury removed from the courtroom and ordered the woman taken into custody. Calling on those in the courtroom Friday to keep their emotions in check, Cannon called Thursday’s incident “a direct criminal contempt of court.”

The woman’s outburst prompted attorney Hand to file for a mistrial. That request was rejected.

Douglas Walker is a news reporter for The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at [email protected].