Was it really over an Xbox? Two teens charged with murder now

FORT WAYNE, Ind. ---Her great grandson arrived home to find his grandmother lying in the hallway face down. 

Alice Hall’s grandson told police he didn’t know she was dead until he turned her over.

She’d been shot through the exterior door as she stood inside her own residence, according to a probable cause affidavit written by Detective Jean Gigli of the Fort Wayne Police Department’s homicide unit.

Devon Stewart

Two young men, Devon Stewart and William Britt, Jr., both 18, have been charged in her death. Stewart was charged with murder; Britt, with murder acting in concert. Both are the highest level felonies.

Police were called to Hall’s home in the 900 block of Colerick Street on June 1 just before 2 a.m., court documents said. 

William Britt, Jr.

There they were met by the victim’s grandson who, according to several sources, is the same age as the two charged in the homicide. He denied knowing why the shooting occurred and said he had no issues with anyone, but there was someone else who might have, court documents said.

The homicide unit didn’t waste time acquiring surveillance video. The night of the homicide, video shows a waltz between a black 4-door sedan and a black SUV at 10:25 p.m. as they cruise on to Colerick Street and alight in front of Alice Hall’s residence. The black SUV pulls ahead of the sedan which has parked and turned off its lights.

A minute later, the waltz continues with the SUV following the sedan around the corner on to John Street where the SUV overtakes the sedan and they park. Detectives see the brake lights through the trees.

Xbox

Not a minute later, Devon Stewart is standing in front of Alice Hall’s door. He knocks. He walks off the front porch and Stewart and Britt crouch together between two vehicles in Hall’s driveway, court documents said.

A minute later and the porch light comes on. Stewart and Britt hide near one of the vehicles before Stewart goes back to the front porch and Britt starts that way, but hesitates.

Britt quickly makes his way back to the one vehicle and crouches down before moving back toward the front porch a few seconds later where Stewart is walking away. 

But Stewart goes back to the porch where he is seen pacing before he leaves about 30 seconds later.

The scenario lasts five minutes before police lose sight of the two. Surveillance then picks up the unidentified suspect vehicle as it travels through streets of the southeast side - John Street to Buchanan, Smith Street to Oaklawn Court, then East Wallace to North Hanna.

The next step in this investigation is sorting through the alleged robbery that apparently set off this particular, deadly beef.

In the painstaking detail that accompanied this probable cause, Devon Stewart is the main character. The week before “granny” was killed, he was going to sell his Xbox to E.W. for $250, only he said the buyer left without paying for it, court documents said. 

Not only was his Xbox stolen, but his black Air Force One shoes, his vape and $160, he said. 

On the same day, but after the homicide, Stewart and two other people filed a “threats” report with police to say they’d attended a baby shower on East Wallace Street and someone had shown up in an all-black Chevrolet to confront Stewart about failing to pay for a pair of shoes.

The three continued to receive threats, they said, and feared this person was going to retaliate by shooting up the house and killing them because “granny” had been shot and killed, court documents said.

Five days later, on June 5, Stewart was arrested and taken to headquarters for a police interview, Stewart told a story that he had been punched with a closed fist and threatened by the people who stole his Xbox. 

The two people sent a message “B——ch, I kill you, b—-ch I kill you” after Devon refused to fight them, he said.

Stewart said the night of the homicide, he’d stayed with a friend and didn’t leave until the morning of June 1, offering an alibi. Gigli confronted Stewart with a report that an individual had threatened to kill Stewart “because he killed granny.”

“That ain’t got nuttn’ to do with me,” Devon told Gigli. Stewart said he’d never shot anybody and asked for a lawyer.

Then Detective Brian Martin took over the police interview. “Hypothetically speaking,” was a phrase used over and over as Stewart revealed that he “knew” where the person lived who had his Xbox and “Will” i.e. William Britt, Jr. knew where that person lived.

“Detective Martin explained that based on what his explanation was, (Stewart’s) charges could be anything from something really bad, such as murder, to something lower on the scale, such as criminal recklessness,” court documents read.

In a kind of ingenious set of hypotheticals, Martin set up a game with Person 1 and Person 2 and got Stewart to play along. In the conversation, Stewart claimed that Britt got involved in retrieving the Xbox because Britt said he was older than Stewart, he “was a better talker” and he could get the Xbox back.

In a scenario that Stewart created with Martin, it was Stewart who waited in the car until “Will” called him back.

“What if I didn’t know that any gun was shot until I was just currently arrested,” Stewart asked Martin at one point in the hypothetical.

Detectives found that his responses matched evidence they’d gained from surveillance video.

There are many witnesses in the affidavit and parties and a high school graduation at the Allen County Coliseum that preceded the night’s tragic events.

Several sources reported to The Probable Cause that Britt has a child on the way, making the story even sadder.

Both Stewart and Britt are locked up at the Allen County Jail with no hope of getting out unless, somehow, charges are dropped.

And somewhere in Fort Wayne, there is an Xbox that has blood on it.