Defense attorney J. Morgan Leach talks to his client Justin Keel on Thursday in Wood County Circuit Court. Keel is on trial for the May 2022 murder of Terrance (T.J.) Mills Jr. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

PARKERSBURG — Ammunition found in the Parkersburg apartment of a man charged with the May 2022 murder of Terrance (T.J.) Mills Jr. is the same kind of bullets as spent shell casings found at the scene of where the shooting took place, a Parkersburg Police detective testified Wednesday.

Testimony continued in the trial of Justin Keel, also known as George Smith, who is charged with the May 17, 2022, shooting death of Mills in an alleyway near Covert Street.

Parkersburg Police Detective Austin Williams testified Keel’s girlfriend at the time, Carleigh Biles, gave police permission to search the apartment they shared at Carlton Apartments on Spring Street which is a couple of blocks from where the shooting occurred.

Testimony Wednesday indicated police found eight spent shell casings from a .40 caliber handgun around a concrete pad where the shooting is believed to have taken place along an alleyway a block over from Covert Street. Police testified a blood trail was found from the concrete pad to where Mills collapsed in a flowerbed at a house on Covert Street.

In searching the couple’s apartment, police found a box of ammo that matched the shell casings at the crime scene, the same caliber, make and brand. The box was missing around 13 rounds which Williams testified could fill a clip for a variety of pistols.

Wood County Prosecutor Pat Lefebure asks Parkersburg Police Detective Austin Williams questions during the trial of Justin Keel who is on trial for the May 2022 murder of Terrance (T.J.) Mills Jr. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

“(The spent rounds) had the same markings as the ones found in the apartment,” he said.

Biles testified earlier in the day that on the evening of the shooting she returned home from work after 10 p.m. and Keel was there and told her she needed to drive him to Columbus, Ohio, to see his mother. She did so, getting there in the early morning hours and drove back that night.

The next day was when she found out about the shooting and police asked her about Keel.

During her testimony, Biles said the bullets were Keel’s and at the time, she knew him to have a pistol and that he used a green laser sight. She later said she has moved on and no longer has feelings for him as she believed he had cheated on her when they were together.

Williams and other officers said they never found the actual gun used in the shooting. A 9mm pistol was found in a bush along the alleyway which Williams said was believed to belong to Mills.

Police said they found other things around the apartment which helped identify Keel’s online usernames and more.

Williams said cellphone data led them to know where Dezaray Lynn Roberts of Vienna was. She previously testified to being there when the shooting occurred and had transported Keel and fellow defendant Donavan McCune to the scene and then drove them away after the shooting. She entered a plea agreement and is serving a 15-year sentence, admitting they planned to rob Mills.

The defense has contended that Roberts is the only one who can place Keel and McCune at the scene of the shooting and that she would be willing to lie to stay out of trouble. They also said police threatened her that she might be sent to prison for murder and that would impact any relationship with her 3-year-old child at the time.

“I did not threaten her with her child,” Williams said, adding they knew things and wanted to see if she would continue lying to them.

When confronted with the truth over what happened and that police knew who Keel and McCune were, she eventually began cooperating. Police had copies of text messages and more about their activities. Police were able to do a search.

Mills’ girlfriend told them Mills was meeting Roberts so she could buy some marijuana. Police had copies of text messages exchanged and other evidence that put her in the area at the time. At first, Roberts was resistant to cooperate, Williams said.

“She did not want to be there (at the police station),” Williams said.

During the course of Roberts’ four-hour interview with police, she was the one who brought up her child and how she wanted to go home and even throwing up when confronted with everything going on.

Defense attorney J. Morgan Leach said Roberts was the only one who put Keel and McCune in her car on the night of the shooting.

“There is no other testimony that puts them there other than her,” he said.

Prosecutors said evidence, tips, leads and followup led to Keel and McCune and cellphones put them in the area of the shooting.

Testimony resumes at 9 a.m. today.

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com