The one-time boyfriend of slain East Kentwood High School student Mujey Dumbuya testified that he held her hand as she cried while being sexually assaulted last summer by 42-year-old Quinn James.
But 17-year-old Daquarius Daymont Bibbs said he did not initially contact police because he and Dumbuya were afraid of James, a Kentwood Public Schools maintenance worker.
“I was scared; Mujey was too,’’ Bibbs testified in Kentwood District Court. "She was scared; she didn't want to tell nobody.''
Bibbs said he met Dumbuya on Facebook and had a sexual relationship with her. He was granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony on Wednesday.
After hearing testimony from four witnesses, including Bibbs, Kentwood District Court Judge William Kelly ruled there was enough evidence to send the case to Kent County Circuit Court.
The felony case had been bound over to circuit court last fall, but returned to Kelly's courtroom on Wednesday so additional testimony could be added to the record.
Defense attorney Jonathan Schildgen objected to the hearing; he earlier tried to keep it from happening.
“I am here under protest,’’ he said. “All my questions will be under protest. I object to the proceedings.’’
A Kent County Circuit Court judge earlier this month agreed to send the case back to Kentwood District Court at the request of Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker, who expressed concern about Bibbs’ well-being.
“We have one live witness and we are substantially concerned about his safety given what happened to the victim,’’ Becker said at an earlier hearing.
James is accused of sexually assaulting Dumbuya multiple times last summer. He is also charged with raping a teenaged girl in an unrelated case from 2014.
In an interview with police, James said he “never raped anybody.’’ The interview with Kentwood Detective Erin Kitchka was played in court on Wednesday.
“Throughout the video, he talked about having sex with her,’’ Kitchka testified.
James said the sex was consensual. He said he also thought the girl had reached the legal age of consent.
“I didn’t know she was 15; I didn’t have that knowledge,’’ he said in the interview.
The court also heard recordings of phone calls James made at the Kent County Jail. He admits to having sex with a girl police identified as Dumbaya, but James says he thought the girl was 17 or 18 years old.
Though James has not been called a suspect in Dumbuya’s death, his attorney says James is being unfairly treated like one.
James was charged with four counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct involving Dumbuya. He waived a probable cause hearing on the felony charges last fall, meaning no testimony was taken. Dumbuya, 16, went missing on Jan. 24; her body was found four days later in a wooded area in Kalamazoo.
She was 15 at the time of the alleged assaults involving James.
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