Tensions ran high Thursday morning at the preliminary hearing for a Lawrence 19-year-old accused of shooting and killing a childhood friend.

Cir Allen Keith Glover is charged with second-degree murder in connection with the June 13 shooting death of Isaiah Neal, 17. Isaiah was shot outside of the townhome he shared with his mother and younger sister in the 2400 block of Alabama Street.

Judge Stacey Donovan did not yet make a ruling on whether Glover will be bound over for trial in the case. That decision will come following the conclusion of the preliminary hearing on Oct. 2. One witness for the prosecution did not show up, and another was already planned to testify next week.

During testimony on Thursday, Isaiah’s mother, Natasha Neal, said her son and Glover had been around each other since they were infants, but they’d recently had a falling out over an incident involving the mother of Glover’s child.

Natasha said that just before 1 a.m. on June 13, Glover came to visit Isaiah, who was on house arrest as a result of the incident with the woman. She said she couldn’t say whether Glover had been invited. She said the two went upstairs to Isaiah’s bedroom, and soon after a single gunshot rang out.

No one was injured, and Isaiah told his mother that the gun had accidentally discharged. Natasha said she told Glover he was being disrespectful by bringing a firearm into her home and ordered him to leave.

Natasha said Glover had apologized to her, and Isaiah was also apologetic for what had happened.

“He kept saying he was sorry. He was laughing; he was joking with his sister,” she said.

“… He kept saying he was sorry, but I was mad at him so I didn’t speak to him,” she said, sniffling.

Isaiah initially followed Glover outside but returned right away. Approximately five minutes later, Isaiah went outside again, Natasha said.

Natasha called Isaiah to tell him to come back into the house. She said her phone records indicated that her call ended at 1:17 a.m.

Natasha testified that immediately after hanging up, she heard gunshots from the back of the house. Although she couldn’t say exactly how many shots she heard, she told the court that it was “a lot.”

Rontarus Washington Jr., who had been visiting the Neals that day, was inside the home helping younger children take cover.

As Natasha called 911, she asked Washington to go outside to look for Isaiah.

 “That was my baby,” she said. “I just felt it. I knew.”

Lawrence police Officer Marcellis Mitchell was among the first emergency responders on the scene. In court Thursday, Mitchell said he and another LPD patrol officer were met by Washington as they arrived.

Mitchell said the three ran “on full sprint” and found Isaiah lying on a path leading toward the back of the townhome.

“He was not in a good state,” Mitchell testified. “I believed Isaiah was dying as I observed him. … He was riddled with bullet holes … They were across his body from head to toe.”

Mitchell said Isaiah had a faint pulse when medics took him to a waiting helicopter headed for KU Medical Center, but EMTs decided his condition was too unstable to make the trip. Isaiah was instead taken to Lawrence Memorial Hospital, where he died before his mother reached his room.

At the scene of the shooting, investigators marked the locations of cartridge casings found on the grass leading to the back of the house. Jana Ramsey, LPD crime scene technician coordinator, said she collected a total of nine spent cartridge casings from the scene. She said they all displayed the same “STV 9mm Luger” headstamp.

Near the walkway to the backyard, Ramsey said she also collected a shoe, a gun magazine loaded with 22 bullets, a gun light and a purple lighter. The bullets in the loaded magazine were mostly the same brand as the spent cartridge casings found in the area where Isaiah was shot, although Ramsey said a few were other brands.

In Isaiah’s bedroom, police found a hole in the wall left by the single shot fired earlier inside the townhome as well as a sandwich-sized plastic bag holding 63 additional bullets. Sixty had the same headstamps as the cartridge casings found outside, and three showed headstamps from other manufacturers.

Ramsey testified that she used trajectory rods through bullet holes found in the fence and in the side of the home’s exterior to locate several of the spent bullets. She also took samples of bloodstains left on the fence.

Defense attorney Michael Clarke asked Ramsey if she was able to use the bloodstains to deduce more specific information about the location of the shooter and victim when the incident occurred.

“With my level of training … I just document and measure the stains within the crime scene,” Ramsey said. “ … I don’t make those conclusions because I’m not an expert.”

Clarke asked Ramsey whether investigators had swabbed the hands of anyone who had been in the home at the time of the shooting to check for gunshot residue. A gunshot residue kit can determine if an individual was in the vicinity of a discharged firearm.

Ramsey said she was aware that GSR swabs were collected, but without a report from the KBI, she couldn’t provide additional details. She said tests performed by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation showed that all of the cartridge casings found on the scene “were from the same firearm.” DNA tests that were also submitted to the KBI are not yet complete.

During Thursday’s hearing, Deputy District Attorney David Greenwald played surveillance video from the security cameras of an adjacent apartment complex.

The sound of eight gunshots could clearly be heard in the recording. A timestamp on the video that was later verified by investigators indicated that the shooting occurred at 1:18 a.m.

Matt Roberts, civilian investigator with the LPD, testified that he later canvassed the area looking for additional security cameras that might show footage of a suspect.

Approximately one quarter of a mile from the scene of the shooting, cameras on the grounds of Broken Arrow Elementary and Billy Mills Middle schools showed a person running past the north end of the complex at 1:24 a.m., six minutes after the shooting. Seconds later, another camera on school grounds recorded a person who appears to be carrying a handgun as he walks toward the camera.

Still images captured from the video show a person with dark facial hair wearing a light-colored sweatshirt with the hood pulled up. The person is carrying a black object in his left hand.

“It appears to be the size and shape of a semiautomatic handgun,” Roberts said. “The way he’s carrying it, it’s being cradled as if it’s something important — something that you don’t want to drop.”

Senior Assistant DA Ricardo Leal is assisting Greenwald in the prosecution.

During a morning break from testimony, some of the 25 spectators who were exiting the courtroom were vocal as they passed Glover approximately 15 feet away. One man stared at Glover and said, “Looking like a punk. Punk.”

At the conclusion of the hearing, the same man could be heard repeating, “Hope you get off, pretty boy.” Natasha followed him out of the courtroom, saying “No, Dad. No, Dad.”

A handful of Douglas County sheriff’s deputies stood outside the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center until friends and family members of both Isaiah and Glover left the area.

Katrice Woods, Natasha’s cousin, expressed frustration that some people were not respecting Natasha’s requests for everyone to keep the peace at the courthouse.

“What are we out here actin’ a fool for?” she said.

Isaiah was one of a group of three Lawrence friends all shot and killed in unrelated incidents between March 2023 and June 2024. He was close friends with 14-year-old Kamarjay Shaw and 15-year-old Brianna Higgins. There had been conflict inside and outside the courtroom during hearings for the teen charged in Kamarjay’s death.

A conviction for second-degree murder carries a maximum sentence of more than 54 years in prison and a fine of up to $300,000. Glover remains in custody of the Douglas County Jail on a $1 million bond.

Arrestees and defendants in criminal cases should be presumed not guilty unless they are convicted.

Andrea Albright (she/her), reporter, can be reached at aalbright (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.

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— Reporter Mackenzie Clark contributed to this article.

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