Crime & Punishment & News & Notes

Bradley Eyo, who was killed last weekend

​Some grim news with which to close out the year, almost ...

The day after Christmas, Bradley Eyo was found shot to death on Barnes Bridge Road near Lake Ray Hubbard. But Dallas homicide detective and Garland police discovered during their investigation that Eyo, whose friends have made him this tribute, had been killed elsewhere and dumped near the lake. In advance of a 3 p.m. press conference at DPD HQ today, police this afternoon released the name of the man arrested in the young Nigerian man's death: 20-year-old Nickey Maxwell Van Exel, who is indeed the son of the former Dallas Maverick, and current Atlanta Hawks player development instructor, Nick Van Exel. Nickey was arrested last night and sits in the Lew Sterrett Justice Center on a $1-million bond, charged with capital murder; curiously, someone has written on Van Exel's Wikipedia page that Nickey and Bradley were best friends.

Update at 2:40 p.m.: Reports have been surfacing that Van Exel confessed. I asked a DPD spokesman if this is correct. The response: "He gave us a statement of his version of events. Departmental policy prohibits me from outlining what he said or the evidence we have but we are comfortable we have the right person." ...

DPD also sends a plea for assistance concerning a fatal traffic accident that occurred December 17 at 12:30 p.m. at the intersection of Marsh and Royal Lanes in Northwest Dallas. According to the department, the collision involving "a brown, four-door Mercury Marquis and a black Ford F-150 pick-up that was pulling a white utility trailer" left two people dead. But so far, the DPD has no witnesses and is asking anyone with any information to call Detective Mandell of the Vehicle Crimes Unit at (214) 670-5817. ...

And Candy Evans, ex of D, sends word that the home of Realtors-turned-tax-evaders Eleanor and Nicky Sheets has finally sold "for an undisclosed ... price to an as-of-yet undisclosed couple," thus ending that sordid chapter once and for all. Nicky's serving 40 months in federal prison; Eleanor, a year in home confinement. Just not that home.