Store robbery, shooting case carried over to grand jury

A Houston County judge found probable cause Friday in an attempted murder and robbery case to forward it to a grand jury. The charges stemmed from a community grocery store robbery that left the owner with two gunshot wounds to his legs.

District Court Judge Brad Mendheim made the ruling on charges filed against Kinsey resident Raashaan Calique King after he heard testimony from lawyers in the case.

Dothan police arrested King, 20, on Dec. 2, 2008, and charged him with felony attempted murder, felony first-degree robbery and felony first-degree theft of property. Mendheim also set a $450,000 bond on all the charges filed against King. King had been held in the Houston County Jail without bond since his arrest.

Police charged King with shooting Willie McGriff, 56, two times during a robbery at his community grocery store, the McGriff Grocery Shop-N-Save store on North Range Street.

McGriff testified at the preliminary hearing Friday that he was shot once in each leg during the robbery by a masked gunman. McGriff said the gunman stole the keys to his Lincoln Towncar after the drawer on the cash register jammed. The gunman fled the store in McGriff’s car.

“He backed up about two feet from the counter, he fired three shots and two of them hit me,” McGriff said.

During cross examination, Valerie Judah, King’s defense attorney, questioned McGriff about whether he actually saw her client.

“How can it be the wrong person when they caught him in a high-speed chase?” Griffin said.

Dothan Police Investigator Cpl. John Crawford testified police and Houston County Sheriff’s deputies arrested King about an hour and a half after the robbery after a high-speed chase ended in a crash on Kinsey Road. Crawford said a 9 mm handgun police believe was used in the shooting was found a couple of feet from the overturned car.

Houston County Sheriff’s Deputy Shane Odom testified he saw King driving a car that matched the description of the stolen car during a pursuit that reached 100 mph.

Judah questioned whether it was actually her client in the car.

“I saw that young man right there driving it,” Odom said at the hearing. “I’m for sure he was the one that got out of the vehicle. I saw him twice.”