Charles "Chaz" Holsey
An eyewitness to a murder told a Criminal Court jury that a man in the back seat of her boyfriend's car told another youth to shoot the boyfriend.
Charles "Chaz" Holsey, 19, died as a result of the gunfire after a drug deal gone bad on March 2, 2015.
Briston Smith, who was 18 at the time of the slaying, is standing trial for felony murder and attempted especially aggravated robbery.
Prosecutor AnCharlene Davis told the jury in the courtroom of Judge Barry Steelman that it was Smith who told Adram Young to fire. Young, who was 17 at the time, is awaiting trial. Robert Thompson, who police say drove Smith and Young to behind the Kangaroo on Dallas Road, was also charged.
Smith told police that he told Young that the deal was "not worth killing anybody," but Young shot anyway.
Courtney Thompson said Holsey sometimes sold marijuana and she went with him on several deals.
She said that night that her mother fixed dinner for her and Holsey, then the two East Hamilton High graduates headed downtown to consummate the deal.
She said she thought it was with a white male, B.J., who had gone to Berry College as Holsey had. She said Holsey had gone to Rome, Ga., to get the drugs. She said he had sold marijuana to B.J. before.
The witness said there were some texts with "B.J." and then some calls. The location was first to be the Publix parking lot on N. Market Street, but police cars were there. It was moved to Walgreens and then to behind the Kangaroo.
She said they arrived first in Holsey's black BMW, then a white Ford Taurus pulled up. She said two black males got out. She said one wearing a maroon hoodie got behind Holsey in the car and one wearing a blue hoodie got behind her. Prosecutor Davis said Young was wearing the maroon hoodie and Smith the blue one.
The witness said they "talked price" and the man in the blue hoodie wanted to "go half." She said when Holsey told him no that the man grabbed the marijuana, saying, "Give me that s--t."
She said when Holsey refused, that the man in the blue hoodie said, "Shoot his a--."
She said shots then rang out and the pair got out of the vehicle. She said when she opened the passenger door that the gunman came toward her. She said she then closed the door and locked it.
Prosecutor Davis said Young fired three times through the back of the driver's seat and fired again, striking the car, after he got out.
Ms.Thompson, who had to pause a number of times to regain her composure, said she told her boyfriend that she had dated since ninth grade, "Chaz, let's go. Let's get out of here."
She said Holsey told her, "Courtney, they shot me. They shot me."
She said he steered the vehicle onto Market Street, but finally blanked out and she had to take the wheel. The vehicle rolled into a pickup truck. Holsey was taken to Erlanger Hospital, where he died after bleeding severely. The shots hit two arteries.
Prosecutor Davis said Smith did not have the money to pay for the marijuana and had planned the robbery prior to arriving. Honing in on the testimony about "Shoot his a--," she said, "Those three words were the cause of the murder of Chaz Holsey."
Defense attorney Brian Pearce told the jury that Smith had not known there was going to be a robbery or shooting.
He said police pressured him into a statement that he said was the version that police wanted.
Courtney Thompson