CASSOPOLIS — Fourth District Judge Stacey Rentfrow found probable cause in Thursday’s preliminary examination of evidence to bind over Jaren Terrell Wade to Cass County Circuit Court for trial.

Prosecutor Victor Fitz called two witnesses, the first Dowagiac police officer to respond to the scene of a fatal shooting Wednesday, April 14, at 210 Grand Blvd., Jerid Ostrom, and Det. Sgt. David Toxopeus, who was involved in questioning Wade after he was apprehended in South Bend, Ind., in mid-June.

Fitz authorized open murder charges in the homicide of 28-year-old Darius Nickens.

Wade’s attorney, James Miller, waived formal reading of the charges and not-guilty pleas were entered during an arraignment.

Nickens, born in 1982, would have turned 29 Aug. 24.

Ostrom testified he has been a city officer for 16 years and that he was dispatched about 5:33 p.m.

It was still light outside when he arrived at the address and saw a gold van diagonally in the driveway and a black male by it on the ground with what appeared to be gunshot wounds in his back and shoulder.

Ostrom knew Nickens and said the victim was still alive when he arrived.

The police officer noticed two bullet casings in the vehicle and a third on the ground on the driver’s side of the van.

Testimony about the autopsy indicated Nickens suffered multiple gunshot wounds, with three “projectiles extracted” from his back and shoulder.

All three shots entered his body from behind.

There was also testimony about a white Chevy Malibu which belonged to the mother of a resident who gave him permission to drive the car, but not Wade.

Toxopeus, with the police force 21 years, indicated Wade fled the scene in the white car without permission after witnesses reported hearing the “pop, pop, pop” of gunshots.

Toxopeus went June 16 to Beacon Heights Apartments in South Bend, where Wade was apprehended, arrested and taken into custody to be read his Miranda rights.

The detective identified the defendant in an orange jail jumpsuit with Miller.

Toxopeus said his initial interview with Wade on videotape with audio lasted 45 to 60 minutes with one short break.

Wade was questioned by the ATF, the federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agency, and, later at the jail Toxopeus talked to him some more with another officer, Jarrid Bradford.

In his perfunctory time on the witness stand, Toxopeus indicated an altercation while shooting dice preceded the shooting.

He said Wade’s demeanor was angry and afraid that he was going to be beaten up or killed.

His statement contained “several partial confessions,” Toxopeus testified, and the remark that “two lives are gone,” meaning his and Nickens’.

The gun was apparently thrown out the window of the vehicle, which was recovered later in another town.

Fitz said at a press conference at Dowagiac City Hall following the incident, “Felony charges have been brought, including a charge of open murder. The charges contain seven separate charges. Open murder is a crime in Michigan which carries with it the potential of a conviction for either first-degree murder, second-degree murder, manslaughter or felony murder. Also, in addition to the charge of murder, there is a charge of carrying a weapon with unlawful intent. That refers to a firearm. Count 3 is carrying a concealed weapon either in a vehicle or on the individual’s person, that being Mr. Wade.”

The warrant specified a pistol.

Count 4 “is a charge of unlawfully driving away a motor vehicle,” the prosecutor said. “The remaining counts are felony firearms charges, which each carry a penalty of up to two years.”

Nickens’ death was the city’s first homicide in three years, according to Dowagiac Public Safety Director Tom Atkinson.