By Julie Manganis
PEABODY — A man who was on probation for a stabbing at the Sports Connection in Beverly last year is now facing murder charges in South Carolina.
Ronald Webster, 34, of Lynn, had served part of a 2 1/2-year jail term for the April, 2007 stabbing and was out on probation when he disappeared earlier this year, probation officers said.
He surfaced on Thursday, when a team of state and Peabody police and U.S. Marshals descended on a home on St. Ann's Avenue.
The marshals had been tracking Webster through a cell phone he had borrowed from a friend shortly before the Sept. 25 shooting.
Webster initially claimed his name was Jason Morgan, but the people he was with identified him as Webster and said he had just shown up that morning. Investigators also used a photo of Webster to confirm his identity.
Now, he is being held without bail on a probation violation and a fugitive from justice warrant.
He made a brief appearance yesterday in Salem District Court, where he indicated that he does not intend to waive extradition to South Carolina. That means that unless he changes his mind there would have to be an extradition process that includes obtaining a governor's warrant and a hearing.
Webster is charged with shooting a man named Jason Gadsden, 21, inside Gadsden's pickup truck, which was parked on a road in Ladson, S.C.
Court documents filed by the Berkeley County, S.C., Sheriff's Department say Webster borrowed a cell phone from a friend sometime on the day of the shooting and placed several calls requesting to meet Gadsden between 10:30 and 11 p.m.
Investigators say that Gadsden, who lived in Summerville, S.C., apparently traveled to an area on Royle Road, near the mobile home park where Webster had been living, to meet Webster.
Witnesses told police that they heard a popping sound and then saw a man in a hooded sweatshirt running from the scene. Police believe that man was Webster, who never returned the cell phone and failed to report to work the following morning.
Investigators also arrested two others they believe were accessories after the fact, Adam L. DeQuina, 32, and Joeva Yagman, 40, both of Victory Road in Lynn, where they were found later Thursday.
The three had been living in the same mobile home park in Ladson but investigators have not offered a motive for the shooting.
In June of 2007, Webster was ordered to serve one year of a 2-1/2-year jail term for stabbing a bartender at the Sports Connection two months earlier.
Webster had been giving bouncers a hard time about leaving, and pulled out a knife, which he used to stab Christopher Jacobsen, 21, in the hand.
Other bouncers chased Webster up the street and caught up with him on Rantoul Street, about a block away.
Webster was apparently released from the jail on parole, prior to completing the full year the judge had ordered him to serve. He was supposed to have reported to a probation officer to be put on a GPS ankle bracelet and an alcohol monitoring device. He was also supposed to attend anger management classes.
Instead, he disappeared. Probation officers got a warrant last spring but were unable to locate Webster until his arrest.
