The 27-year-old Omaha man accused of shooting a Lincoln man in February 2021 and leaving him to die in a failed plot to rob him of 4 pounds of marijuana was found guilty of murder Monday.
Days after Deontae Rush took the stand in his trial and declared he "had nothing to do with" the shooting of James Shekie, a Lancaster County jury found Rush guilty of first-degree murder and use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony for his role in the robbery gone wrong.
The jury rejected Rush's defense that he was being framed for the murder by Anna Feilen and Marques Moten, both of whom testified against him, telling jurors that they waited in the car in the early-morning hours of Feb. 23, 2021, as Rush went into Shekie’s north Lincoln mobile home with a gun.
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They said they heard gunshots soon after, then a scream and drove off, picking up Rush soon after at a nearby FedEx when he called Moten.
“I’m testifying that they’re outright lying,†Rush said.
His attorney, Jeff Pickens, even asked him point-blank: “Did you shoot Mr. Shekie?â€
“No,†Rush answered.
But the jury didn't buy his defense, nor his explanation for why his cellphone was pinging off towers in Lincoln near Shekie’s home at the time of the killing, when he claimed to be in Omaha arguing with his girlfriend.
Rush said he’d accidentally left his iPhone in Moten’s van about a week earlier. He denied being the one using it early that morning, texting about the robbery.
Surveillance footage taken shortly before the shooting showed a third person with Feilen and Moten at a Lincoln apartment complex.
In closing arguments Thursday, Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Eric Miller said Rush was scared by Shekie after going in the trailer, fired a wild shot, then a second at a doorway before walking in and shooting Shekie on his bed with his back to the wall.
Miller said phone records and social media conversations back up what siblings Feilen and Moten said, but there was nothing to corroborate what Rush said on the stand.
“He just says it,†the prosecutor said.
Pickens cast the case as simple. For the jurors to find Rush guilty, they had to believe Feilen and Moten beyond a reasonable doubt.
“I suppose the issue for you folks is: Is this third person Mr. Rush, or is it somebody else? If you think the third person is Mr. Rush you’re obviously going to find him guilty. But there is a reasonable doubt about who is the third person,†he said.
In his rebuttal, Miller said Feilen and Moten did lie about some things.
“But they weren’t lying about this,†he said. “And they weren’t lying when they pointed to Mr. Rush and said he is the one that went into Mr. Shekie’s trailer, shot him and killed him. They aren’t lying about that.â€
The jury — which began deliberations late Thursday and resumed Monday morning, following the observance of Veterans Day on Friday — ultimately sided with the state, returning a guilty verdict shortly before 1 p.m.
The verdict comes three months after Rush's first trial for Shekie's murder ended prematurely when a spate of COVID-19 infections led to a mistrial.
Judge Kevin McManaman will sentence Rush in December. He faces life in prison.