Detectives detail multiple cases against Lexington man charged in Alumni Drive murder

At a court hearing Thursday morning, two detectives and a jail employee discussed the various charges against a man accused of shooting and killing a 26-year-old after he was already wanted for cutting off an ankle monitor while on conditional release in a different criminal case.

Juanyah J. Clay, 19, was arrested in March and charged with murder in the death of 26-year-old Bryan Greene, according to police.

Greene’s body was found on the night of Jan. 30 after someone spotted a large amount of blood outside an apartment at 2800 Alumni Drive, Lexington police detective Jeremy Atkins testified at the preliminary hearing Thursday. When police went inside the apartment they found Greene dead of what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds.

Also found in the back bedroom of the apartment was one spent 9-millimeter shell casing and seven spent .45-caliber shell casings, indicating that was the room where the shooting happened, Atkins said. After talking with witnesses police identified Clay as a possible suspect.

Later, on Feb. 18, police officers were called to the area of Radcliffe Road and Haggard Lane for a report of a person who was trying door handles. Police caught up with the individual at a Marathon gas station on North Broadway, and found that he had a Sig Sauer P250 .45-caliber handgun, Atkins said. The person told police that he was a juvenile named Demarcus Rashad Clay and that he wanted to talk to his guardian.

Police eventually talked to a woman who confirmed that she was the juvenile’s guardian, and officers released him to the supposed guardian, Atkins said. Later, Atkins was notified that the .45-caliber taken from the “juvenile” matched the shell casings found at the Alumni Drive apartment where Greene had been killed. Investigators also learned that there was no record in Fayette County of a juvenile named Demarcus Rashad Clay.

When police then talked to the woman who’d said she was the guardian of Demarcus Rashad Clay, she admitted that she lied, and that the person had actually been Juanyah Clay, an adult, Atkins testified. A warrant was then issued for Juanyah Clay’s arrest on a charge of murder.

Clay was arrested on March 30 at a hotel on E. Lowery Lane, Lexington police detective Keith McKinney testified. He was found to have $1,020 in small bills, three concealed loaded firearms and unknown pills on his person, and a digital scale and marijuana was found in the room he was exiting, McKinney said. In addition to the charge of murder, Clay is facing two charges of drug trafficking and one charge of concealing a deadly weapon.

After his arrest, Clay admitted to Atkins that he shot Greene, Atkins testified. Clay also stated that another person was present at the time of Greene’s death, and that that person has since died. While Atkins did not testify to how that person died, he said that the person’s name was Markel Allen, which is the name of a 17-year-old who was shot and killed in Lexington on Feb. 17. That case is still under investigation.

At the time of Greene’s death, Clay had an arrest warrant out for violating the conditions of his release as he awaited trial on a separate burglary charge, according to court records. An employee of the Fayette County Detention Center testified Thursday that Clay was placed on an ankle monitor in May of 2020. He’s accused of cutting that ankle monitor off in June 2020 and throwing it out the window of a vehicle in Lexington, the jail employee testified.

Clay’s attorney, J. Parker Mincy, said during Thursday’s hearing that he will likely argue that the shooting was self-defense, but acknowledged that that would be an argument at trial rather than a probable cause hearing.

Fayette County District Judge John L. Tackett found there was enough probable cause to send all of the charges against Clay to a grand jury for indictment. If indicted, Clay’s cases will move to Fayette County Circuit Court to be prepared for trial.

Tackett did not lower Clay’s bond, citing the severity of the charges against him and the fact he is accused of previously cutting off an ankle monitor.