‘Incredibly dangerous’: Bail denied for man charged with shooting 4 in Chapel Hill

A judge denied an attorney’s request to set a bail bond for the suspect in a fatal shooting last September at University Gardens apartments in Chapel Hill.

Michael Jerome Henry, 29, of Durham, is charged with first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder, three counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and a related gun charge.

He is accused of shooting 51-year-old Michael Deshai Lee on the evening of Sept. 27 at the apartment complex on Pritchard Avenue Extension, near Umstead Drive.

Three other people also were shot but survived.

Henry’s defense attorney Tonza Ruffin asked a Superior Court judge to set a bond Tuesday, citing the prosecutor’s decision not to seek the death penalty. Orange-Chatham District Attorney Jeff Nieman said during last year’s election campaign that he would not seek the death penalty in any cases.

Henry has been held in the Orange County jail without bail since his Oct. 4 arrest.

On Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Blake Courlang countered the bond request with a litany of gun and drug charges that Henry has previously faced, as well as additional details about what led to the shooting.

‘A very, incredibly dangerous situation’

A female victim had stopped by the apartment complex to visit her uncle when Henry started making “rude comments” toward her and other women gathered outside the buildings, Courlang said.

An argument started, and the woman called her boyfriend, who arrived shortly with his friend Lee, he said. Another argument ensued involving the men, he said, and Henry pulled out a gun, firing it at multiple people.

Henry fled in a friend’s car, firing as he drove away and creating “an incredibly dangerous situation,” Courlang said.

“The state contends that there were shots fired from the car as it was driving away ... shooting into an area where multiple people are living in the apartment complex, as well. It was a very, incredibly dangerous situation, so no bond is required in this case,” he said.

The friend, Algie Jermaine Burch, faces a felony charge of being an accessory after the fact, according to court records. He is scheduled to appear in Superior Court on Jan. 20.

Henry’s next appearance in court will be June 27. His attorney told the judge she may ask for another bond reduction at that hearing.

He also is charged in Wake and Durham counties with cocaine possession, assault on a female, battery of an unborn child, destruction of private property and resisting an officer. The Durham charges were also scheduled to be heard in court Tuesday in Durham County.

The News & Observer has reported that Chapel Hill police received 19 calls about the shooting to 911 on Sept. 27. One caller reported hearing more than 10 gunshots, while another said Henry was seen walking around the complex after the shooting, according to the 911 calls.

Lee was the second person killed in a shooting at University Gardens last year. On Aug. 25, 19-year-old Rahzel Tyreek Jenkins was shot at the complex. He died at UNC Hospitals.

The man accused in his murder, Anthony Wuanya Holman, 22, of Chapel Hill, told District Court Judge Todd Roper at his first appearance in August that he shot Jenkins in self-defense.

District Court Judge Sheri Murrell did not find probable cause for the first-degree murder charge against Holman in a subsequent hearing, and the case was dismissed, Nieman said in a phone interview Wednesday.