According to prosecutors and court documents, a Florida man committed a cold-blooded, execution-style killing on camera before taking selfies with a gold medallion snatched from his victim’s neck.
Marcuss Ealy, 22, has been charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery with a firearm or deadly weapon in the 2023 shooting death of 21-year-old Malcolm Avery Johnson Jr. near Northwest 170th Street and Northwest 3rd Avenue in North Miami Beach, according to the State Attorney’s Office.
A pretrial detention motion filed last week in the state’s 11th Circuit details what Ealy allegedly did and how his own mother identified him in photos and provided sworn statements to police, saying: “This was my worst nightmare, somebody killing Marcuss or Marcuss killing someone.”
Surveillance cameras installed at a local business near the scene allegedly captured what happened, with cops showing Ealy’s mother still photos from the footage of Ealy and another man, Mario Folger, committing the deadly heist together on May 30, 2023, per prosecutors.
“Yes, it’s them,” Ebony Lundy told officers after seeing the photos, according to the pretrial detention motion. According to the document, when investigators contacted Ealy’s brother and showed him still photos from the video, he declared that “the shooter is 100% his brother Marcuss”.
According to prosecutors, the brother also claimed to have seen the gun used to kill Johnson in Ealy’s Instagram posts.
Fogler, Ealy’s alleged accomplice, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in March and was sentenced to 20 years, according to local NBC affiliate WTVJ. The station reported that he is expected to testify against Ealy during his trial.
On Monday, a local judge denied Ealy bond after prosecutors released photos of selfies he allegedly took with Johnson’s medallion. Ealy’s girlfriend is also said to have taken photographs with the jewelry. According to the pretrial detention motion, Ealy snatched it from Johnson’s neck before shooting him four times with a pistol. Police reported that Ealy shot Johnson once in the head and once in the chest.
“I can’t in good conscience say that it would be safe for the community to return this defendant to his home,” Judge Cristina Miranda said during Ealy’s bond hearing, according to WTVJ. “Where law enforcement has gone to the extent of putting a pole camera to observe what’s going on.”