News - Featured Story

Thursday, Nov. 05, 2009

Teen claims shooting an accident

Murder case bound over to grand jury

KILN — Jeremy Rando has claimed he accidentally shot an acquaintance during a drug deal and raked the gravel in his front yard to conceal the blood, a Hancock County sheriff’s detective testified Thursday in Justice Court.

Rando, 18 and charged with murder, said he was discussing the trade of a gun for drugs with Nicholas “Nick” Patterson when the gun accidentally went off, said Detective John Bunce.

“It went off accidentally three times?” asked Olen Anderson, Hancock County prosecuting attorney.

“He said the first shot was an accident,” Bunce replied.

Bunce said Patterson, 22, of Diamondhead, was shot twice in the head and once in the left cheek and died of head wounds. He was found Oct. 9 in the back seat of a car on Third Marsh Road in the Clermont Harbor community.

Judge Ricky Adam found probable cause at the hearing to send the case to a grand jury. The judge denied a request to reduce Rando’s bond of $1 million.

Security was tight as two sets of grieving families gathered for the hearing. Deputies used handheld weapon-detectors at the courtroom door and then spread out and stood guard.

Patterson, a chef, lived with his family in Diamondhead.

Rando was living with his family on Lee Road, less than two miles from where Patterson’s body was found.

Bunce said Patterson told friends he planned to meet someone for a drug deal the night he disappeared. The next day, two friends found him locked in the back seat of his sister’s car.

A man on Lee Road reported hearing gunshots the night before, which led authorities to Rando’s home. Detectives believe Rando drove the body off and walked home.

Rando at first told detectives two men in a Cadillac pulled up in his yard and shot Patterson, said Bunce, but in a second interview, Rando admitted firing the shots. Rando’s mother found the gun in his backpack and threw it in a pond. Bunce said she helped detectives recover the weapon.

Bunce said the gun belonged to the father of one of Rando’s friends. The gun was missing two days before the shooting but had not been reported stolen. Tamara Patterson, Patterson’s mother, sobbed openly after the hearing.

Attorney Cindy Burney said Rando has told her there was no drug deal.

“The individual who was shot was there to look at the gun to consider purchasing it,” Burney said. “My client doesn’t have anything to say about a drug deal.”