Ex-NBA player Javaris Crittenton set for court appearance on murder charge
(CBS/AP) SANTA ANA, Calif. - Former NBA player Javaris Crittenton is scheduled to appear today in criminal court for a hearing in connection with his arrest in a deadly Atlanta shooting.
Crittenton is being held on a state penal code violation of being a fugitive from justice, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said. He was taken into custody Monday night at John Wayne Airport in Orange County.
Police in Atlanta had obtained a murder warrant for Crittenton in the Aug. 19 shooting of Jullian Jones, 23, a mother of four young children, as she was walking with two men.
Crittenton, 23, was wanted on a federal arrest warrant after the FBI learned that he traveled on a one-way ticket to Los Angeles, where he was known to have family and friends, several days after the shooting.
Jones, a 23-year-old mother of four, was outside her house with 18-year-old Trontavious Stephens when a black Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid pulled up and gunfire erupted. Authorities don't believe Jones was the intended target, but they haven't said who they think the assailant was after.
Meanwhile, this incident is is not Crittenton's first issue with guns. He was with the Washington Wizards in December 2009 when he and teammate Gilbert Arenas had a dispute over a card game. Two days later, Arenas brought four guns to the locker room and set them in front of Crittenton's locker with a sign telling him to "PICK 1." Crittenton then took out his own gun.
Crittenton plead guilty in January 2010 to a misdemeanor gun charge and received a year of unsupervised probation. Arenas entered his guilty plea on Jan. 15, 2010. He served a short time in a halfway house.