Meanwhile, police were investigating another homicide, a shooting late Sunday night at a Walker Street home. And the victim of a mid-September beating on Washington Street died from his injuries over the weekend, prompting police to upgrade assault charges facing two men to murder.

Early Monday, Xavier J. Moore, 21, turned himself in to police and was charged with murder in the Saturday evening stabbing death of Keanan James Odom at Northgate Mall.

Police say Odom, 22, was stabbed during an altercation inside the mall and died later at Duke Hospital. Odom was the second member of his family to die violently in the past two months; six weeks ago, his cousin, Kordero Odom, 19, was shot a few blocks from a family home.

The mall closed early after the stabbing Saturday, the second homicide there in the past three years. Lazarren Tyqwan McLean, 16, was shot and killed in the mall parking lot in 2005.

"Northgate's been an institution for a long while, and they just spent a lot of money improving it, and they don't need that kind of horror," said Dan Hill, a former City Council member and current member of the Durham Roundtable, a group that tracks violent crime. "They're doing all they can to make Durham a better place ... and then a couple of guys can go and just destroy that."

Police say Keanan Odom was at the mall with his young son, his girlfriend and others Saturday when he was stabbed. An Odom family member said this weekend that Odom was acquainted with Moore but did not know him well.

Odom had run afoul of the law many times. He was out on bail on several charges including murder in two separate 2005 shooting deaths. He also had been arrested on drug, weapons, assault and strangulation charges but continued to post bail and spent little time in jail awaiting trial.

"The bottom line is that's a judicial decision," said Durham District Attorney David Saacks. "We don't have the ability to revoke bond or set bond."

Prosecutors often argue for the highest bail possible, Saacks said, but he said he knew of only three situations in which judges do not set bail -- in death-penalty murder cases, for fugitives and for failing to appear in court on a murder charge.

"It really is a Catch-22 type of thing," Saacks said. "You really are innocent until proven guilty, so it's not fair to have someone sit in jail the whole time while they wait for trial."

In Durham, routine homicide cases typically take 18 months to two years to get to trial.

Saacks said he would like to see cases move more quickly through the courts, but it takes time for prosecutors to interview witnesses and get lab tests and other information they need for trial.

Across town Monday, police were investigating the shooting death of Jeffrey Lee Wells, 22, who was shot late Sunday at his Walker Street home just east of downtown. Witnesses told police a man emerged from a vehicle, fired several shots at Wells, who was outside, and fled in the vehicle, which was driven by another man.

It wasn't clear Monday how many people were in the vehicle, and Police Chief Jose Lopez Sr. said at a Monday afternoon news conference that his department had no suspects or motive.

"We don't have any absolute suspects," Lopez said, "but we do have people we're talking to in reference to it. At this point in time, we're just asking the community to come forward and help us with it."

The vehicle was described as a dark older model similar to a Chevrolet Suburban, with tinted windows, shiny rims and double back doors.

Also this weekend, a Chapel Hill Road man who was severely beaten in mid-September died from his injuries, and charges against two people in his assault were upgraded Monday to murder.

Dallas Latae Kelly, 36, died Saturday of injuries sustained in a Sept. 18 assault on Washington Street. Police have charged James Anthony Macaluso, 38, of Junction Road and Robyn Dukes, of Chalk Level Road with murder. Macaluso is in custody; police are still looking for Dukes.

Those three homicides bring the city's count this year to 20, five more than Durham had in all of 2006. Raleigh had 19 homicides last year, and Johnston County authorities reported 11. Chapel Hill and Orange, Wake and Durham counties each had fewer than five homicides.

Anyone with information about the Durham homicides is asked to call Investigator C.A. Robinson at 560-4440, ext. 264, Sgt. Jack Cates at 560-4440, ext. 262, or CrimeStoppers at 683-1200.

(Staff writers Jim Wise, Matt Dees and Anne Blythe contributed to this report.)

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