Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

By W. Zachary Malinowski
Journal staff writer

PROVIDENCE -- The investigation into the unsolved murder of a young man in the city's Mount Hope neighborhood last year has apparently heated up.

Today, Superior Court Judge Robert D. Krause granted a prosecutor's request to dismiss three felony charges against Terrell Bliss, 20, a prime suspect in the December 2007 killing of Nathan Davis-Gilliard.

Michael Healey, spokesman for Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, said that the procedural move was necessary to clear to way for potential murder charges.

"The Providence police and our prosecutors want to do some more digging,'' he said. "We believe (Terrell Bliss) may be implicated in a more serious crime.''

Healey said that a conviction on the assault and gun charges would have precluded his office from prosecuting Bliss on murder charges. ``You can't be charged twice for the same crime,'' he said.

Providence Police Maj. Thomas F. Oates said that detectives are aggressively pursuing leads and they have been tracking down information `"on a daily basis.''

Bliss, who survived a shooting last summer and has had multiple run-ins with the police, is being held at the Adult Correctional Institutions for violating the terms of his probation from a previous conviction.

Last September, the murder of Davis-Gilliard was highlighted in a story in the The Providence Sunday Journal about vandals desecrating his grave in the North Burial Ground on North Main Street. Investigators believe that the gravestone was damaged and set afire as part of a simmering feud between young men from Chad Brown and Mount Hope.

On Dec. 21, 2007, Davis-Gilliard and two friends, Kevin Perry and Eugene Lowell, were walking near the corner of Jenkins and Knowles Streets in Mount Hope when a carload of young men from Chad Brown, a housing project in the city's Wanskuck neighborhood.

The police said that Bliss hopped out of the back seat of the car with a .25-caliber handgun and pointed it at Perry.

Moments later, several shots were fired and Davis-Gilliard's bullet-ridden body was found outside 10 Knowles St., not far from the house where he was raised with his brothers and sisters.

Bliss has not been charged with murder, but a year ago, the Providence police arrested him for threatening Perry with the handgun in the moments before the murder. He was charged with felony assault with a dangerous weapon, using a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence, and carrying a firearm without a permit.

The police did not recover the gun.

Yesterday, those three felony charges were dropped.

Healey, the spokesman for Lynch, said the murder investigation is "continuing and expanding.''

 Tags  murder Providence

Comments

nancy wilson said:

This is so unfair. I know the prov. police are pursuing every possible lead,but so many guide lines seem to hamper new evidence and information pertaining to this case. I want these murders off the streets and punished for what they have done to my son as well as to others we don't even know about. If the judicial system allows these clowns to go unpunished, then they will feel that they have made fools out of our police dept.Unjustice shall not prevail in our society. I strongly believe that justice will be served and they will serve the time mandated by the court system.It's very difficult for me to take these baby steps right now, but I have faith in God that all will prevail. you have my permission to print this article if you like. nancy wilson

Link | February 2, 2009 9:29 PM
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