An Omaha man fatally shot another man near Carter Lake in May before setting fire to the stolen car used in the shooting, according to testimony from an Omaha police detective.
Brandon Mikesh, 27, appeared in court Monday for a preliminary hearing. He faces charges of first-degree murder, use of a firearm to commit a felony, felon in possession of a firearm, evidence tampering and arson in connection with the killing of 59-year-old Bernard Leonard.
Despite Mikesh’s attorney questioning the accuracy of cell tower location data police say placed Mikesh in the area of the shooting, Douglas County Court Judge John Huber found probable cause existed to believe Mikesh committed the crimes, and the case was transferred to district court for further proceedings.
Police were called to Levi Carter Park at the intersection Ninth Street and Carter Boulevard shortly before 8 p.m. on May 17. The passersby who called 911 about 10 minutes after the shooting initially thought Leonard had been in a motorcycle crash, but first responders instead found him on the ground by his motorcycle with a gunshot wound.
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According to testimony from Omaha Police Homicide Detective Chad Frodyma, two surveillance cameras captured audio and video of the shooting. In the first video, a silver Toyota Highlander was seen driving towards the intersection before parking along the side of the road. About 10 seconds later, Frodyma said, Leonard followed behind on his yellow motorcycle.
Shortly after Leonard pulled up alongside the Highlander, he is seen on the video collapsing to the ground as the Highlander speeds away. Frodyma said a separate camera on a nearby home captured the sound of four distinct gunshots at the same time Leonard collapsed.
Three 9mm shell casings were recovered at the scene, according to Frodyma. Leonard was declared dead that evening.
At about 8:45 p.m. that same evening, Frodyma said, police received a 911 call reporting that a vehicle was on fire at Hummel Park. The vehicle — a silver Toyota Highlander — had been set on fire intentionally, Frodyma said. A gas cap ring was found in the nearby area. A search of the VIN number revealed the car had been reported stolen about a month prior.
By the next morning, Frodyma said, police received multiple anonymous tips alleging Mikesh and his girlfriend, 24-year-old Samantha Kirby, were involved in Leonard’s killing. Prosecutors filed charges of accessory to first-degree murder against Kirby last week, but she was not in custody as of Monday afternoon.
Frodyma said the tipsters shared different theories on the motive for the killing, with one person saying the dispute between Mikesh and Leonard was drug-related, and another saying it was a “jealousy thing†involving Kirby. Police have not confirmed either theory and are investigating the motive, he said.
When investigators searched Mikesh’s mother’s residence, where he lived, they found the original license plates for the Highlander and multiple documents pertaining to the vehicle in a “burn pile†in the garage. A red gas can with a missing cap was also found in the garage.
Police applied for a series of search warrants known as “tower dump†warrants, which show investigators if a phone connected to cell towers in a particular area — in this case, the area of the homicide and of the arson in Hummel Park. Frodyma said data obtained from service providers showed Mikesh’s phone connected to cell towers in both areas of interest. Kirby’s phone was also noted to be in the area of Hummel Park around the time of the car fire.
Cell location data also revealed Mikesh and Kirby had allegedly been involved in a theft on May 15, in which multiple credit cards and a 9mm Taurus handgun were stolen from a truck in downtown Omaha. Mikesh was seen on surveillance video at a Walgreens attempting to use the stolen credit cards, Frodyma said.
The missing Taurus handgun, which police believe was used to kill Leonard, has not been found.
Mikesh has a lengthy criminal history and was released from prison last summer after serving just over three years for attempted robbery. Since then, he has been in and out of the Douglas County Correctional Center on various felony and misdemeanor charges, mostly related to theft and drug possession.