After more than two days of prosecutors laying out their case, the three men suspected in the 2017 killing of Egypt Covington will go to trial.
34th District Tina Brooks Green ruled Thursday there was enough evidence for two men from Toledo and a man from Sumpter Township to face first-degree murder charges at trial.
READ: Judge rules enough evidence for 3 men to stand trial in murder of Egypt Covington
Covington was found in her Van Buren Township home in June 2017. She was fatally shot and tied up with holiday string lights. Van Buren police were unable to make much progress with the case and Michigan State Police took over. Investigators linked a blue truck that was seen the night of her death and a cell phone back to Toledo.
“It’s a huge win,” said Covington’s brother, D’Wayne Turner. “They did a phenomenal job.”
Turner, his fiancée, Lindsay Brink, and many others have been through excruciating pain since her death four years ago. It was cold case until Michigan State Police took over the investigation.
READ: Prosecutors lay out case against 3 men charged in 2017 killing of Egypt Covington
Judge Green ruled Thursday there was enough evidence to send Timothy Moore, his cousin, Shandon Groom, and his brother, Shane Evans, to trial.
Groom and Moore lived in Toledo, but Evans lived three miles from Covington.
Prosecutors played a police interview with Evans, who said he led the other two to Covington’s duplex and told them the neighbor had marijuana that would be easy to steal.
The judge called it a confession that Moore and Groom allegedly went into the wrong unit, where Covington was home alone.
Defense attorneys argued while police can place a truck and cell phones tied to the men at Covington’s home, there is no evidence that the men shot and killed her. They’re pushing that investigators need to look at her ex-boyfriend.
Covington’s loved ones are finally getting closure and knowledge that she did nothing wrong to bring danger into her home that night.
“We can tell you that she did nothing wrong,” Brink said.