COLUMBUS, Ohio — A grand jury returned an indictment Thursday against a man allegedly involved in the killing of Cleveland police Det. James Skernivitz, 53, and another man described as his informant, while two new suspects in the case were charged for allegedly helping to dispose of suspected weapons.
Prosecutors presented evidence to the grand jury linking David McDaniel, 18, to the killing of the two men. The grand jury determined there was probably cause to indict McDaniel on 11 charges including aggravated murder and tampering with evidence.
In addition to McDaniel, two juveniles suspects are facing aggravated murder charges. McDaniel was the only known adult suspect in the case until Thursday when prosecutors announced charges against two more adults, Brittany Cremeans, 24, and Antonio Darby, 27, for allegedly lying about their roles to authorities and helping to "dispose of the suspected murder weapons."
McDaniel will be arraigned Tuesday, Sept. 22, prosecutors said. Cremeans and Darby will be arraigned on Oct. 1. McDaniel's indictment includes firearm specifications that say he brandished a weapon during the killing. The indictment says the suspects ran from the scene.
Skernivitz and Scott Dingess, 50, were killed on Sept. 3 behind Rose’s Discount Store at 3250 W. 65th Street during an undercover operation. The two men were found shot in an unmarked police vehicle and were rushed to MetroHealth Hospital, where they were pronounced dead.
McDaniel’s attorney David Snow said he was in court Tuesday morning and waived a request for a preliminary hearing made on his client’s behalf by a public defender. Snow, who will likely not represent McDaniel for the duration of the case, said this move gives prosecutors a bit more time. It is unwise to rush them, he said.
Juvenile suspects could be charged as adults
The county’s lead juvenile prosecutor Brett Kyker submitted motions to a judge Tuesday arguing the other suspects, ages 15 and 17, should be charged as adults. He argued the two defendants may not be amenable to rehabilitation in a juvenile facility.
The 15-year-old’s attorney said he needed to speak with his client’s family again before addressing the media. His client’s mother told FOX 8 she thinks the two other teenagers put her son in a bad situation. She said her son, who turned himself in to police last week, was just with them to get marijuana.
Jonathan McDonald, the 17-year-old defendant's attorney, said it is too early in this case to comment. McDonald said his firm is currently awaiting discovery from the prosecutor’s office, which "should shed light on their theory and/or evidence on the case."
Prior to the indictment, police and prosecutors had revealed only a brief statement of facts in a statement from Det. David Borden.
“The suspect David McDaniel and two other juvenile suspects approached the victim PO James Skernivitz and victim Scott Dingess behind Rose’s store,” Borden’s statement reads. “The suspect David McDaniel and two other suspects shot and killed both PO Skernivitz and Scott Dingess during an attempted robbery of the victims.”
Police have not commented on what Dingess and Skernivitz were doing or why they were alone. A Spectrum request for public records for video footage was denied by the city due to the active investigation. Cleveland police directed a request for the police report to the city’s public records center. A week later, a request for the report has yet to be fulfilled.
Here’s what we do know:
At 9:55 p.m. on Sept. 4, a 911 caller reported hearing a burst of about eight shots from a semiautomatic weapon followed by about eight more shots. The caller reported shots near W. 68th Street and Camden Avenue, which is about 100 yards from the scene, just across some railroad tracks.
Officers responded unaware the shooting involved a police officer, dispatch audio recordings show. Upon arriving to the scene, officers called for EMS and reported an officer and a man were unconscious in an unmarked police vehicle that had crashed into a playground. Dispatch audio recordings capture officers discovering that the two men were suffering from gunshot wounds. Officers are heard calling for EMS while they performed CPR.
Police said they searched surveillance cameras and found footage of three young men near the scene.
Skernivitz was assigned to a gang unit. At the time of death, he was working on-duty undercover as part of the Justice Department’s anti-crime task force “Operation Legend,” authorities said.
A 25-year veteran of the Cleveland Police Department, Skernivitz was sworn in to work on the task force the day before his death, according to FBI Special Agent Vicki Anderson.
Operation Legend, a violent crime fighting initiative of Attorney General William P. Barr, launched in Kansas City on July 8 and was expanded to five other cities including Cleveland later in the month. The operation pairs federal agents with local law enforcement agencies, tooling officers with heightened surveillance capabilities to aggressively pursue violent criminals.
Dingess posted bail on July 31 in a case in which he and his wife April Dingess faced theft charges for taking five pairs of sunglasses from a Sunglass Hut and two pairs from a Lenscrafters, Cuyahoga County court records show.
He was due for pretrial in the theft case with Judge Kathleen Ann Sutula on Sept. 4, the day after his death. Sutula said she did not work with police for Dingess to become an informant.
“I don’t know if other judges deal with police informants,” she said. “But I don’t work with the police, and I have never gotten anyone involved in police informant type of work.”
Wrong suspect released after bloody arrest
Before the three suspects currently facing charges were arrested, police detained three other men on unrelated warrants. One of the men, Nathaniel Gilliam, was mistakenly identified by a daughter of the informant prompting police to begin a search for him, said Ashley Kay, who was home with Gilliam when police surrounded their house.
Police banged on the door of Gilliam’s aunt’s house and asked who was home. When his aunt listed Gilliam among those staying at the house officers shouted for him to put his hands up and the arrest became physical, Kay said.
“They rushed in here. One officer then slammed him on the ground, kicking him, punching him yelling at him,” she said. “He told them he couldn’t breath. They told him neither can the police officer he killed.”
Gilliam was pictured in handcuffs with a black eye. Kay shared pictures of blood stains on her wall. Sheriff’s booking logs show he was in custody Friday, Sept. 4 for robbery, which Kay said was for an old bike theft case. He had been released by the next Monday.
A Cleveland police spokesperson said the matter is under investigation.
The arrests of the wrong suspects came amid an all-out blitz from the police department to solve this high-profile case. Police offered rewards of up to $35,000 for information.
A manager at Rose’s Discount Store said footage from their cameras was part of the officers’ investigation. All of his employees had gone home for the night when the shooting occurred.
Bryan Byrne, Dingess’s attorney in the theft case, did not respond to requests for comment. Dingess’s family told media they did not know he was working with police.
Attorney Adam VanHo, who represented Dingess in a former case, said his old client was dealt a lot of bad cards in life, but did his best to deal with his demons.
“Scotty wasn’t an angel but he didn’t deserve to die,” he said. “Sometimes you have clients who you sort of can’t stand, but then you have clients who you just really like even though they do a lot of bad stupid things.”
VanHo said the Cleveland police are among the best when it comes to keeping their officers and sources safe. He does not suspect a screw up put Dingess in danger.
“It may have just been wrong place wrong time,” he said.
The two men were remembered last week, Skernivitz at a televised funeral at Rocket Mortgage Field House where AG Barr gave remarks, followed by a procession of hundreds of officers through the city; Dingess, at a quieter service at a Cleveland funeral home that his family is still struggling to pay for.
So far their GoFundMe has raised $160 toward the $3,500 funeral costs.