4th Suspect Charged In Football Player's Death

Tuesday, October 9th 2007, 9:59 am

By: News On 6

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) _ A fourth man has been charged with murder in the shooting of a football player on the University of Memphis campus during a botched robbery, authorities said.

Devin Jefferson, a 21-year-old student at the school, was arrested Monday night.

Police said there were rumors around campus that Taylor Bradford, 21, had won more than $3,000 at a nearby casino the night before police found him Sept. 30 in his car, which had crashed into a tree a few blocks from his campus apartment.

The 21-year-old student, Devin Jefferson, was arrested Monday night and charged with first-degree murder in the perpetration, Sgt. Vince Higgins said.

The Memphis men, who were charged earlier Monday and are not students at the university, were identified as DaeShawn Tate, 21; Victor Trezevant, 21; and Courtney Washington, 22. All three were in police custody. None had an attorney Monday.

``He was targeted because there was some information that was out there and they believed he had some cash,'' said Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin.

Godwin added that the men didn't get any money, but declined to elaborate.

Police said Bradford had several thousand dollars on him at the time of his death, but Godwin refused to say if Bradford won the money at a casino.

After the shooting, university officials told students, faculty and staff that the suspects had fled the campus, but the school canceled classes as a precaution.

Bradford, a Nashville native who transferred to Memphis from Samford University, was buried over the weekend.

In Mississippi, a man was charged Monday with capital murder in the shooting death of Rodney Lydale Lockhart, a University of Mississippi sprinter, police said.

Christian C. Bonner, 20, is accused of killing Lockhart, 20, who was found dead Sept. 29 at his apartment near campus, Oxford Police Chief Mike Martin said.

The junior psychology major was a member of the gold medal-winning U.S. 1,600-meter relay team in the 2006 World Junior Championships in Beijing.

Bonner was being held without bail at the Lafayette County Detention Center. It was not known whether he had an attorney.

Martin declined to give to a motive in the shooting case, but he said Bonner knew the victim. Bonner was not a student at the University of Mississippi, school spokesman Jeffrey Alford said.