Her roommates kicked her out for not paying rent – and it got them killed, prosecutors say

She didn’t know it at the time, but it would be their last conversation.

It was October 2015, and Regina Marshall had gotten a call from her daughter Kiana Marshall. The daughter told her mother that she and her roommates were going to kick out two other roommates — Diamond Butler, now 20, and another woman — for not paying rent, the mother testified in court on Tuesday, WTOC reports.

“She said, ‘I’m fixing to call the police and get them out of my house now,’ ” Marshall testified. “That was the last time I talked to her.”

Shortly after that call, 21-year-old Kiana Marshall, her 18-year-old brother Isaiah Martin and their 20-year-old friend Alexis Kitchens were shot and killed at their Savannah, Ga. home on Oct. 22, 2015, according to Savannah police.

It was the same day that rent was due, Marshall testified in court.

Dwayne Abney, 20, and James Hampton, 24, are now on trial, charged with killing the three roommates, the Savannah Morning News reports. Diamond Butler, one of the roommates who was kicked out, has admitted that she asked Hampton to return to the house to shoot at her former roommates.

“I told him I wanted to go shoot the house up,” Butler testified, the Morning News reports.

Prosecutors said that Butler waited outside while the murders happened in the house, WTOC reports.

Images presented at the trial on Monday were so graphic that sobbing family members of the victims had to be asked to leave the courtroom so their emotional outburts wouldn’t impact the jurors’ deliberations, according to WSAV.

Butler, testifying as part of a plea deal, said in court this week that Hampton brought a 9 mm weapon with him, which he had named “Nancy,” and that Abney was armed with a 380 weapon, the Morning News reports.

Neighbors testified Monday that they heard a handful of shots fired, WSAV reports.

“I heard, maybe one to two shots, then I heard two, two or three more shots, and then I heard another combination of shots,” neighbor Marcus Hall testified, according to WSAV.

Butler has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, three counts of aggravated assault and a single count of burglary, according to court records.

Hampton and Abney have both pleaded not guilty.

The other roommate who was kicked out in October 2015 faces no charges, the Morning News reports.

Abney’s attorney argued in court that the incident was entirely Hampton’s fault, WTOC reports.

“I can tell you now, we got somebody in this case that's going to pay and he's sitting right over there,” said Richard Darden, Abney’s attorney, referring to Hampton. “There he is right over there. The evidence is absolutely overwhelming on that guy — but there is reasonable doubt in this case against Mr. Dwayne Abney.”

Police arrived at the crime scene just after 8 a.m. on Oct. 22, 2015, when they were called to the residence because the front door was ajar, according to Savannah police. Once inside, police said they found all three victims dead of gunshot wounds.

This story was originally published December 5, 2017 at 7:35 PM with the headline "Her roommates kicked her out for not paying rent – and it got them killed, prosecutors say."