...three years later, three men have been charged in the July 2017 killing of De’Earlvion Whitley. Known as “Little Earl,” he by all accounts was a happy, lively child who loved to dance and played flag football on a neighborhood team.
A Bexar County grand jury has indicted Terrell Chase, 27; Todd Hill, 32; and Quentin Phillips, 28, in the child’s death. Each is charged with murder, being a felon in possession of a firearm and deadly conduct. All three have extensive criminal records, including drug and assault charges.
...Warrants have been issued for two more men, also wanted on charges of murder and deadly conduct in the boy’s death: Michael Woodard, 29, and John Chatman, 38.
Dakota Peppers, 29, has been charged with one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm in connection with the crime, but not in the death. He was in jail with bail set at $100,000.
...Little Earl was playing with his 7-year-old brother, Corey Lewis, when a group of men driving opened fire on his home in the 200 block of Hub Avenue shortly before midnight July 19, 2017.
Police said 65 shots were fired at the house. Corey wasn’t injured, but Little Earl was shot in the head and his mother, Cyntwanisha Whitley, 32, suffered two gunshot wounds to her legs. She survived.
...Police Chief William McManus called the death a “tragedy that outraged our community.”