Teen charged with capital murder in killing of Birmingham 22-year-old during a robbery
A teen has been charged in the weekend shooting death of 22-year-old Birmingham man.
Jeremy Dewayne Thomas, 18, is charged with capital murder in the slaying Xavier “Zay” Colvert, a mechanical engineering student.
Authorities say it appears Colvert was set up to be robbed.
Thomas was booked into the Jefferson County Jail just before 5 p.m. Thursday and is being held without bond.
Police have not yet said what led them to identify Thomas as a suspect. The police department’s Crime Reduction Team located him at a west Birmingham home and took him into custody after a brief foot chase.
The shooting happened at 11:45 p.m. Friday in the 1400 block of 57th Street in Ensley.
Birmingham police were dispatched to a shots fired call and arrived to find Colvert unresponsive inside his white pickup truck.
Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service pronounced him dead on the scene at 12:38 a.m. Saturday.
Two men were killed in separate shootings early Sunday in Birmingham. One of the shootings happened on 57th Street in Ensley, and the other in the 600 block of Eighth Terrace West.(Carol Robinson)
Police marked at least a half dozen shell casings near the truck’s passenger door.
Colvert was the son of former Jefferson County Constable Robert Colvert III, who himself was a victim of violence when a shootout happened in 2018 at his body shop in Woodlawn.
The senior Colvert, a father of seven, was hit twice, in the hip and buttocks areas during an exchange of gunfire with a man he allowed to use his tools and space at his shop for a couple weeks to finish up some work he was doing on two vehicles.
The other man was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison with five to serve.
Colvert III served as a constable for four years until last month, and now works as a Bessemer Cutoff bailiff and also does evictions for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
Colvert III said his son graduated in 2020 from Fairfield High Preparatory School and was accepted into Alabama A&M’s mechanical engineering program.
Xavier Colvert, left, was shot to death durig an apparent robbery in Birmingham. He is pictured with his father, former Jefferson County Constable Robert Colving III, a courtroom bailiff.(Special to AL.com)
He returned to Jefferson County at the end of the last semester to take a break and be with family.
“He said he missed home,’’ Colvert III said. “Zay was gonna start back after the summer.”
“Zay was a genius, mechanically inclined, one of the smartest people I know,’’ Colvert III said. “Zay taught me something every day about life.”
Colvert III said his son was not on the streets whatsoever.
“He was kind of a nerd if you will,’’ Colvert III said. “He love to laugh and make people laugh.”
“His presence was known when he walked in the room by his smile and laugher,’’ he said. “Xavier was a big teddy bear.”
Colvert III said the pain of losing his son is different than anything he’s known.
“His life was taking way too soon by gun violence in the streets of Birmingham,’’ Colvert III said. “The Birmingham Police Department is outgunned and outnumbered.”