Two more people have been charged in connection with an Auburn homicide — one accused of driving the shooter from the crime scene and disposing of the weapon, and another who spent time in Auburn Correctional Facility.
Acting Cayuga County District Attorney Brittany Grome Antonacci said that Adrian Agee, 40, and Junnell Copes, 35, both of Auburn, were arraigned on felony charges Wednesday in the death of John Wesley Smith III, 37, of Syracuse, who was found dead from a gunshot wound in front of Swifty's Tavern on Perrine Street at about 1:40 a.m. March 15.
Shameek Marie Copes, 28, of 1 Jefferson St., Apt. 1, Auburn, is the only suspect believed to have fired a shot that night. She turned herself in late March at the Rock Hill Police Department in Rock Hill, South Carolina, after an arrest warrant accusing her of second-degree murder was issued in Cayuga County on March 28.
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In a Wednesday news release, Grome Antonacci said that the charges against Agee allege that he knew Shameek Copes had "engaged in conduct constituting murder in the second degree" and rendered criminal assistance "by providing her with transportation from the scene of the homicide and concealed the firearm used to commit the murder by discarding the firearm in a storm sewer."
He is charged with criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of a firearm, hindering prosecution and tampering with physical evidence.
Agee is alleged to have been in possession of two 9mm pistols around the time of the shooting, and his charges carry a possible sentence of 15 years in prison.
Junnell Copes, who authorities believe to be a cousin of Shameek Copes, was charged with criminal possession of a weapon for allegedly possessing a "loaded and operable .45 caliber pistol while in the area of 45 Perrine Street in the City of Auburn."
The DA's office said the .45 is not believed to be the weapon used in the killing, but that he also faces a possible sentence of up to 15 years in prison.
Junell Copes arrives for a court appearance in Auburn on Wednesday.
Junnell Copes was sent to prison in 2017 after pleading guilty to felony possession of stolen property, and prosecutors said at that time he had previously been convicted of robbery in 2004.
In the 2017 case, a corrections officer in a tower at ACF saw Copes and another man attack and rob three people who had been walking near the prison on State Street.
State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision records show that he was released from ACF in November 2021 after serving his full sentence.
Shameek Copes remains in custody in South Carolina awaiting extradition, and the Cayuga County District Attorney's Office said it has been working with the Auburn Police Department and U.S. Marshals Service to return her to New York.
