Murder suspect shot victim over debt, witnesses say

LANCASTER – A 51-year-old man accused of shooting a man to death outside a Lancaster home in August appeared in an Antelope Valley courtroom for a scheduled preliminary hearing Tuesday.

Freddie Wayne Grigsby is charged with murder for the shooting death of 47-year-old Vance Lamar Jones, which occurred around 7 p.m., Aug. 23, outside a home in the 500 block of West Oldfield Street.

During Tuesday’s preliminary hearing, attorneys tried to piece together the events that led up to the shooting and questioned two witnesses who were inside the home during the incident.

Deanna Pendergraph testified that the victim, who also went by the nickname “Juice”, had sent someone out of the home on a drug buy.

“Tutu was supposed to pick up a bottle of sherm (PCP),” Pendergraph said.

The person named “Tutu” came back with a bottle of drugs that was only partially filled, so Jones angrily demanded that Tutu get his money back, Pendergraph said.

Tutu left the home, presumably to return with Jones’ money, but before Tutu could return, Grigsby  (also known as G-Man) came by and said that Jones owed him money, Pendergraph said.

Jones took Grigsby outside to talk, and that’s when the shooting occurred, Pendergraph said.

She said she heard five gunshots.

“I heard him say ‘Ah!’ three times,” Pendergraph said, referring to Jones.

Under questioning from Grigsby’s defense attorney, Pendergraph said she only heard bits and pieces of the conversation the two men were having outside, because the door was only slightly open and because she was consumed with writing a letter to her baby’s father in prison.

Pendergraph said she did not see Grigsby with a gun when he first entered the home.

The second witness, Enoch Lucas, gave a slightly different account of the events. Lucas said Pendergraph had been in a back room during the confrontation between Jones and Grigsby.

Lucas said he was the one who let Grigsby into the home. Grigsby immediately said that Jones owed him money, and Jones suggested the two take it outside, Lucas testified.

Sometime after that, there were five gunshots, Lucas said.

“I heard Vance (Jones) scream,” Lucas said, adding that he heard the screams after the third gunshot. He said another person at the home opened the door and then Jones stumbled in.

“He had holes in him and blood coming out of him,” Lucas testified.

He said Grigsby did not come back inside the home after the shooting.

Under questioning from Grigsby’s defense attorney, Lucas said he did not see Grigsby with a gun, he did not see Grigsby pull the trigger, and he had not witnessed a physical altercation or verbal argument between Grigsby and Jones before the shooting.

After the second witness, L.A. Superior Court Judge Christopher Estes recessed the hearing until November 5. At the conclusion of the hearing, Estes will decide whether there is enough evidence against Grigsby to warrant a murder trial.

Grigsby was ordered back to custody on $2 million bail.

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