photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Dominic Sanders appears in Douglas County District Court Thursday, May 23, 2024, with his attorney, Razmi Tahirkheli.

A man who is accused of shooting up an eastern Lawrence neighborhood on the day of a boy’s funeral last year has been ordered to stand trial in Douglas County District Court.

The defendant, Dominic Sanders, 25, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to three felony counts of criminal discharge of a firearm. He is accused of firing a gun from a moving car into two homes and a vehicle in the 1500 block of Wedgewood Drive, which is next to Oak Hill Cemetery.

The incidents occurred on April 1, 2023, the day that 14-year-old Kamarjay Shaw was being laid to rest at Oak Hill. Shaw had been shot to death the month before. The teenager accused of killing him, Derrick Del Reed, was acquitted earlier this spring.

As the Journal-World reported, Sanders had a preliminary hearing in March, but Judge Amy Hanley did not make a ruling at that time, citing the need to review a transcript in the case. On Thursday she ruled that there was probable cause to order Sanders to stand trial, and she set a trial date of Nov. 18.

At the preliminary hearing, Senior Assistant District Attorney David Greenwald put nine witnesses on the stand to build his case that the person responsible for firing the shots was Sanders, while defense attorney Razmi Tahirkheli argued that lots of people were in the area wearing red clothes that day who could have been responsible for firing the gun. Cellphone video recorded at Shaw’s service showed a car driving by with people hanging out of the windows and shouting — one of them wearing red.

Sanders is also facing trial on June 24 in a misdemeanor case of domestic battery.