Former NBAer Nick Van Exel’s Son Charged With Capital Murder; Case Set to Begin

Former NBA player and current Atlanta Hawks assistant coach Nick Van Exel’s son Nickey has been accused with using a shotgun to murder his close friend in late 2010, and though in 2011 he was indicted on a manslaughter charge, the charge has since been upped to capital murder. Details courtesy of the Dallas Morning News: “Testimony is expected to begin this morning in the capital murder trial of the son of former Dallas Mavericks player Nick Van Exel. Nickey Van Exel, 22, is accused of fatally shooting his long-time friend Bradley Eyo in the chest with a shotgun at Van Exel’s Garland home in December 2010. According to police, Van Exel later confessed to the shooting, saying that he didn’t realize the gun was loaded. But what Van Exel did next never made sense to Eyo’s father, who told us back in 2010 he did not think the shooting was an accident. Van Exel, who faces up to life in prison, told police that after shooting his 23-year-old friend, he wrapped him in plastic, dragged him to his garage and loaded him into the back of his Chevrolet sport utility vehicle, according to police documents. Authorities believe Van Exel drove his friend’s body over to an area just west of Lake Ray Hubbard and dumped the body. He went back home and cleaned his bedroom and stairs and then left again, Van Exel later told police, this time to get rid of the gun in a North Dallas creek. Though he was initially arrested days after the shooting on a capital murder charge, Van Exel was indicted in January 2011 on the lesser charge of manslaughter. But later in 2011, court records show Van Exel was indicted again, this time on a charge of capital murder. The indictment reads that he shot his friend, ‘in the course of committing and attempting to commit the offense of retaliation.'”