Jermaine Johnson and Gary Spears appeared in court Tuesday for charges related to a November shootout that left one teen dead.
TRENTON - The shooting that left a teenager dead on a Chambersburg street last year started over a failed burglary attempt, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Jermaine Johnson Gary Spears, 33, and Jermaine Johnson, 40, appeared in Mercer County Superior Court Tuesday for bail hearings, a little over a week after they were charged with murder.
Both men are accused of retaliating against 19-year-old Elvin Kimble after the teenager tried to break into Johnson's car in November, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Kimble's body was found behind a house on Division Street in late November, dead of wounds he suffered in a shootout, police have said.
Superior Court Judge Timothy Lydon maintained the bail for both men at $1 million in cash.
Prosecutors described the series of incidents Tuesday that escalated to an early morning shootout in the streets.
They claim Kimble tried to break into Johnson's car before the shooting. They don't know where the car was parked or how well Kimble and Johnson knew each other, Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Tim Ward said.
In that break in, Kimble fired shots in Johnson's direction, Ward said.
Johnson was upset over the attempted break-in and called up a few of his friends - including Spears - to retaliate against Kimble, according to prosecutors.
They found Kimble on Rusling Street and started shooting. By the time the shootout was over, Kimble was dead, though Ward said he doesn't know how many times the teenager was hit.
Bullets littered the streets and bullet holes were found in nearby parked cars, police have said.
Prosecutors said Tuesday that they have surveillance video showing Spears shooting a gun. When authorities arrested him, Spears identified himself in the video, Ward said.
Edward Heyburn, the attorney for Johnson, argued that the surveillance video only showed that Johnson was at the scene, not that he shot a gun.
There were two shooters, Heyburn said, and his client was not one of them.
"(Johnson) was just caught up in the crossfire."
Both men have criminal convictions, which factored into Lydon's decision to keep the bail at $1 million.
Anna Merriman may be reached at amerriman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @anna_merriman Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.