Darius Fields is charged with engaging in organized criminal activity for the plot that killed Shavon Randle in June 2017.
By Nataly Keomoungkhoun and Krista M. Torralva
A man accused of scheming to kidnap and kill a 13-year-old girl was the leader of the drug crew that carried out the plan, Dallas County prosecutors said Tuesday during opening statements at his trial.
Darius Jamal Fields faces a charge of engaging in organized criminal activity that led to the death of 13-year-old Shavon Randle, who was kidnapped and later found shot to death in a drug house in east Oak Cliff in 2017. Fields is also accused of causing the death of Michael Titus, who was found fatally shot in the same house.
But connecting Fields, now 31, to the incident would take some piecing together, said prosecutor Jennifer Falk, because Fields was the one calling the shots and distanced himself from the crime.
“He is the kingpin, the leader of his crew,” Falk told jurors.
Finding DNA evidence would be difficult, but using cellphone and location data, prosecutors said, Fields could be identified as the person who orchestrated Shavon’s abduction.
But defense attorney Scottie Allen said there is no hard evidence to connect Fields to the crime. Allen said most of what the prosecution will present is hearsay, and he encouraged jurors to listen for facts.
“Follow the law, follow the evidence,” he said.
Prosecutors said Fields, Titus, Desmond Jones, Devontae Owens and Laquon Wilkerson were involved in the kidnapping and killing of Shavon. Jones was convicted in 2020 and sentenced to 99 years in prison, and Wilkerson pleaded guilty to the same charge in August in exchange for 40 years in prison. Owens’ case is still pending.
Shavon’s kidnapping and death were in retaliation for $250,000 worth of stolen marijuana that belonged to Fields, prosecutors said in opening statements. Authorities have said that Shavon had nothing to do with the drug robbery.
A man named Kendall Perkins stole the drugs from Field’s girlfriend in a room at a Motel 6 in Lancaster on June 26, 2017. When Fields found out that Perkins had stolen the marijuana, prosecutors said Fields, Owens, Wilkerson and Jones met the next day and conspired to surveil LeDoris Randle, who was Perkins’ girlfriend and Shavon’s cousin. Instead, Shavon was abducted from her aunt’s Lancaster home.
Shavon had celebrated her 13th birthday six days before she was kidnapped.
Phone calls
Rosenina Randle, Shavon’s aunt and LeDoris Randle’smother, testified that Shavon was a responsible young girl, and she often left Shavon with her other daughter, a teenager who has Down syndrome. The girls were home alone in Lancaster the morning of June 28, 2017.
Later that morning, Rosenina Randle said LeDoris told her that she had gotten several calls from a man saying that he “wanted our [expletive] back” and that the man had Shavon. Rosenina Randle testified that shewent home and found only her teen daughter in the house. Shetold jurors that she called 911 and told the operator that Shavon was missing.
LeDoris Randle testified that while she was at work, she received one call from Shavon’s cellphone and several from a private number. A man on the other end of one of the calls said that he had Shavon, she said.
During her testimony, LeDoris Randlesaid she called her mother and Perkins to let them know about the calls.
LeDoris Randletestified that she was aware that Perkins often robbed people for drugs and money. Perkins is facing an aggravated robbery charge in relation to the June 2017 incident. His trial is pending.
LeDoris Randle also testified that during the investigation she sometimes withheld information because she did not want to be labeled a “snitch.”
Defense attorneys said that LeDoris Randle’stestimony contradicted her statements under oath from previous trials. When she was questioned by defense lawyers, she said could not recall or remember some of the information.
After Shavon was reported missing, her kidnapping escalated to an AMBER Alert, prompting involvement from the FBI and neighboring police departments.
Hotel room
A portion of Tuesday’s testimony focused on when Fields was discovered at a Best Western Inn in Irving following Shavon’s abduction. Several law enforcement officials testified that when Fields was found, marijuana was in and around the toilet and guns were inside the hotel room.
Charles “Blake” Cunningham, who later retired as a police officer with the Irving Police Department, testified that when he responded to the hotel room, he walked in and saw that water inside the commode had been agitated and appeared to have marijuana in the bowl.
Fields is serving an 18-year sentence on gun charges in connection with the case. He faces up to life in prison if convicted of engaging in organized criminal activity.
Testimony is expected to resume Wednesday.
