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Brian Finley
Eyewitnesses unwilling to share information and one person's story that changed led authorities on Wednesday to make the rare decision to drop a first-degree murder charge in a high-profile street killing.
The move highlighted the obstacles to solving street crime and left unanswered questions surrounding the "pajama party" in March 2008 on Dodds Avenue that left 18-year-old Tyrone Stewart dead after open gunfire.
A similar shooting death close by took place the same night, causing what Hamilton County Assistant District Attorney Brian Finley said was initial "confusion" as police tried to find out if the shootings were related.
Apparently they weren't, and now Dominic Antonio Pointer, who was arrested just days after Mr. Stewart's death, charged with first-degree murder and has been incarcerated ever since, soon could be leaving jail.
Mr. Finley told a judge Wednesday that he has agreed to dismiss the case because of a lack of evidence.
"It's very frustrating," he said after the court hearing in describing the case's history. "I'm sure more people saw what happened. But when they won't come forward, we can't prosecute effectively."
Defense attorney Jesse Dalton confirmed that it is "very rare" for prosecutors to drop a murder charge outright. He said the decision may have taken more than two years, but he only could commend the district attorney's office for being willing to seek the truth.
"Someone's dead here, and there needs to be punishment, but it needs to be for the right person," Mr. Dalton said.
Uncooperative onlookers, little forensic evidence and an eyewitness account investigators learned they couldn't rely on are what led to the difficult decision, Mr. Finley said.
The eyewitness recently changed his story, telling investigators that he can't be sure Mr. Pointer, 21, had a gun. That version was plausible, Mr. Finley said, since police found gunshot primer residue only on Mr. Pointer's pants. The residue couldn't prove definitively that Mr. Pointer ever fired a weapon, Mr. Finley said.
Mr. Finley and Mr. Dalton now believe Mr. Stewart's shooter most likely was standing next to Mr. Pointer during the incident.
That suspect is being investigated, Mr. Dalton said, declining to give further details. Mr. Finley would not comment on who eventually might be held responsible in the killing.
The shooting, which happened among a crowd in the East Lake Courts housing development, prompted longtime residents, including the victim's mother, to address the chronic violence problems that have plagued the neighborhood.
"This darkness has got to come to the light," Mr. Stewart's mother Patricia McCray told the Chattanooga Times Free Press in 2008. "There has got to be a light at the end of the road."
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