On a brisk late autumn afternoon, the sense of security in the planned community of Columbia, Maryland, was shattered by a burst of gunfire that ended two young lives. Davon Mayfield, an 18-year-old male, and his friend, Jonathan Barney, 19, were fatally shot in a wooded area on November 29, 1999. The violent deaths of the two teenagers were the first homicides in Columbia that year and sent a wave of fear through the Oakland Mills village, a neighborhood troubled by growing concerns over drug activity.
The attack happened around 4:20 p.m. in the woods behind the Tor apartment complex, located in the 5700-5800 block of Stevens Forest Road. Residents reported hearing multiple gunshots, which some initially mistook for a car backfiring or firecrackers. The grim reality became clear when Davon, gravely wounded, staggered out of the woods and collapsed on a grassy area between two parking lots.
Soon after, Howard County Police officers discovered Jonathan's body near a paved footpath inside the woods. He had been wearing a home detention bracelet on his ankle.
Investigators immediately began processing the scene, using floodlights as evening fell. They recovered an unspecified quantity of drugs, leading them to believe the shooting was not random but a targeted attack, possibly related to drugs. No weapon was found at the scene, and police quickly concluded that the two victims had not shot each other. The area, particularly the unlit bike path winding through the woods, was known to residents as a place where people loitered and where robberies had occurred.
The investigation by the Howard County Police Department explored a possible connection to another shooting that had occurred just two days earlier. On November 27, 1999, Davon’s older brother, Willie Mayfield, and Jonathan Barney were shot at as they left a basement apartment on Stevens Forest Road. A 20-year-old Columbia man, Jason Gregory Owens, was charged with attempted murder for that incident. However, in February 2001, a jury acquitted him of all charges. During the trial, a detective acknowledged that Owens had been considered a suspect in the double homicide of Davon and Jonathan but was later eliminated.
Following the acquittal, Davon's mother, Cynthia Little, expressed her frustration and her conviction that the two shootings were linked. "He knew who shot at him," she said, referring to her son Willie's testimony. Believing justice would be hard to find, she stated, "The way I see it, this case is never going to get solved here in Howard County." At the time, the lead detective on the homicide case said the investigation was still active. "I'm confident I know who did it, and we're still in the process of building a case," he told reporters.
Despite that confidence, the case grew cold. Over the years, the families of Davon Mayfield and Jonathan Barney have been left without answers and without justice for their sons. The double homicide remains a painful memory for a community that was, at the time, grappling with the intrusion of urban violence into its suburban ideal.
As of January 2024, the murders of Davon Mayfield and Jonathan Barney remain on the Howard County Police Department's list of unsolved cold cases. The department continues to seek new information that could finally break the silence that has surrounded this case for over two decades. A reward of up to $30,000 is offered by the county for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in unsolved homicides. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Howard County Police at 410-313-STOP or via email at [email protected].
