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Chattanooga police Lt. Edwin McPherson
Slaying suspect Marvin Nicholson Jr. made wireless phone calls at about the time and near where a 15-year-old boy was abducted and again in a rural part of Hamilton County where the boy’s body was found, an FBI agent testified Friday.
“Between 10:43 and 11:54 a.m., Mr. Nicholson’s cell phone was in the vicinity of the kidnapping,” FBI Agent Bill Shute said.
Mr. Shute testified that he reviewed telephone records for Mr. Nicholson’s phone that placed him near Dodson Avenue on Oct. 3, 2006, when James Citizen was ordered into a car at gunpoint and near Sims Harris Road, where the boy’s bullet-riddled body was found a short time later.
Mr. Nicholson, a former Chattanooga firefighter, is on trial charged with first-degree murder, felony murder and especially aggravated kidnapping. He was fired from the Chattanooga Fire Department after he was charged in the case.
Hamilton County prosecutors allege Mr. Nicholson killed the boy because he thought Mr. Citizen was responsible for at least two break-ins at his Elmendorf Street residence.
Defense attorney Johnny Houston denied Mr. Nicholson was aware who broke into his house and said his client just was expressing frustration when he ranted to a police officer that he would kill whoever was responsible.
Chattanooga police Lt. Edwin McPherson testified Friday that officers arrived to serve an arrest warrant and a search warrant the day after the kidnapping and killing when Mr. Nicholson incriminated himself.
“He kind of dropped his head and said, ‘I know what you are here for,’” Lt. McPherson said.
After asking Mr. Nicholson to repeat himself, Lt. McPherson said the defendant said he was just asking them what was happening.
On Thursday, two eyewitnesses testified that it was Mr. Nicholson who approached the 15-year-old and his sister on Dodson Avenue asking what they knew about “a robbery or a robber” and that he was seen leaving a secluded area on Sims Harris Road where the boy’s body was found.
Assistant Hamilton County District Attorney Jason Thomas said the teenager was shot five times with what he believes was Mr. Nicholson’s late father’s service revolver received when Marvin Nicholson Sr. worked for the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office.
Prosecutors also believe Mr. Nicholson may have worn his father’s sheriff’s uniform during the abduction and killing.
Mr. Houston said it was a case of mistaken identity and pointed at other possible suspects.
The trial will continue next week before Criminal Court Judge Barry Steelman.
