Greenwood Police Chief Henry Purnell tells The Greenwood Commonwealth that Cordarious Robinson, 22, has nothing to do with the shootout that occurred Saturday night at the downtown Greenwood law office of Lee Abraham. “These are unrelated charges that we have charged him with. He had nothing to do with the Saturday night shooting.”
The Police Chief said that Robinson was linked to a separate murder conspiracy case regarding an arrangement Robinson made with Dr. Ralph Arnold Smith, a Greenwood oncologist. Though intriguing, the police have declined to elaborate any further.
Bond for Robinson was set at $120,000 on charges of conspiracy to commit murder and being a felon in possession of a gun. On a related note, the oncologist, Dr. Smith, 70, has been charged with hiring men to kill his ex-wife’s divorce lawyer, Lee Abraham.
Smith and Derrick Lacy, 25, are both charged with conspiracy and capital murder related to the death of Keaira Byrd. Authorities say Lacy and Byrd, 23, went to the attorney’s office to kill him as instructed by Dr. Smith last weekend. Byrd was killed in the ensuing shootout with police investigators while Lacy escaped with only wounds.
Another man, Paul Muller, 54, is also charged with conspiracy though the police have yet to reveal what role he played in the sordid affair. Muller was released from jail earlier this week on $250,000 bond and immediately decided to post a message on his Facebook account: “I am sure the Almighty God will protect me against all odds and the predators that try to prey on me. Contrary to what you may have heard I had no part in no uncertain terms, in Saturday night’s activities.”
The attorney, Abraham, 64, alerted the Mississippi attorney general’s office only a few weeks ago after being alerted of a plot to kill him. The AG’s office then sent three investigators to Greenwood over the weekend when Abraham had agreed to meet with some of the supposed plotters. The police confronted the alleged hit men, killing Byrd, who was wearing a ski mask, and shooting Lacy several times. One of the officers from the AG’s office was wounded in the exchange.
The doctor, Smith, went through a messy divorce from his wife, Abraham’s client, in 1996. The records have been sealed but entries show that the two fought over money long after the divorce was granted in 1998.
If you’ve been involved in something that requires the skill of an experienced Mississippi criminal defense lawyer, please call us at The Stroud Law Firm today at (833) 536-5656 for a free consultation.
Source: “Greenwood arrest unrelated to Saturday’s murder-for-hire scheme,” by The Associated Press, published at GulfLive.com.
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