It allegedly started with a bump on a path while walking through a violent South Richmond apartment complex one Friday night last September.

It ended two nights later with two fatal shootings, Richmond police and prosecutors charge. Tyeron Massenburg, 22, the cousin of the bumpee, was slain as he drove through the neighborhood with his brother and two friends. Ikia M. Goodman, a 25-year-old female bystander across the street, also was fatally shot.

But before the killings, Willie N. Hayden Jr. was spotted at another shooting at Massenburg and some of his companions. Confusion in Richmond Circuit Court over who was the target of that shooting led to a mistrial yesterday of Hayden in the shooting deaths of Massenburg and Goodman.

Mentioning that earlier, nondeadly shooting risked improperly prejudicing the jury in the murder trial, one of Hayden's lawyers, David Lassiter, argued yesterday.

Judge Richard D. Taylor Jr. agreed, and declared a mistrial.

That means Hayden will stand trial this summer.

Meanwhile, the commonwealth's attorney's office has filed additional charges, including three counts of attempted murder for each of the other passengers in the car Tyeron Massenburg was riding in.
Contact David Ress at (804) 649-6051 or dress@timesdispatch.com.