A man charged with the murder of a 42-year-old Newark Lyft driver was found not guilty by a jury last week, according to court documents.
Michael Toombs of Chester, Pennsylvania, was acquitted of all charges including murder and possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony, court records show.
Toombs, 25, was charged with killing Roger Williams in January 2020 after he surrendered to police following more than a month-long manhunt, according to federal authorities. Police said Toombs had been “actively evading” law enforcement in several states since Williams’ homicide.
Toombs pleaded not guilty to all charges and demanded a jury trial, court documents state. In court, Toombs’ attorney pointed at other possible suspects and characterized the case against his client as weak, with no concrete evidence proving that he killed Williams.
On the night of Dec. 12, 2019, police responded to Dorjul Apartments on Lancaster Pike, near Greenville, for reports of a shooting and found Williams dead, according to police.
That night Toombs was at Dorjul Apartments with his two cousins and one of his cousins booked a ride for Toombs to get to Elkton, Maryland, said Eugene Maurer, Toombs’ attorney.
Williams, who worked for both Uber and Lyft had been dispatched to the apartments through Lyft, police said at the time, but did not specify whether Toombs was a passenger when the shooting occurred.
The state alleged that Toombs got into Williams’ car and shot him once in the back of the head and once in the eye, Maurer said describing evidence presented at trial.
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Toombs did not testify in court but the defense argued that his cousins were possible suspects citing that a surveillance video obtained from the apartment parking lot was unclear and did not prove that the person getting inside Williams’ car was Toombs.
Both of Toombs’ cousins testified in court that Toombs got into the Lyft car, and one of the cousins said that he saw Toombs shoot Williams, according to prosecutors in the Delaware Department of Justice. Both the men later admitted to lying in their testimony, according to Mat Marshall, DOJ spokesman.
During the trial, prosecutors showed a Cash App transaction that his cousin testified Toombs sent as a reimbursement for the Lyft. He then fled to Georgia and shut his phone off and never turned it back on, according to prosecutors.
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No forensic evidence was obtained from the car tying Toombs to the murder, Marshall said.
“There was no physical evidence to prove he was in the car and there were two eyewitnesses in the parking lot but they didn’t really see anything,” Maurer said. “It really came down to the testimony of the two cousins which ultimately did not prove that Toombs was the shooter beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Attempts to reach Toombs for comment through his attorney were not successful.
Contact the reporter Yusra Asif at yqureshi@delawareonline.com
