Chattanooga police hunting shooter after dead man found by girlfriend

Saturday, February 12, 2011

photo Staff Photo by Angela Lewis/Chattanooga Times Free Press Kameka Jordan moves items Friday from her Doris Street home. Her boyfriend, Lavante Favors, was shot and killed at the home Thursday evening. No arrests have been made.

Kameka Jordan needed something to steady her hands.

Thirteen hours earlier, she found her boyfriend of a decade dead on their living room floor, his head disfigured from a single bullet wound.

The 23-year-old self-medicated with beer and cigarettes Friday morning as she glanced at stained paramedic gloves in the street and watched family members gut the home of furnishings.

Sipping, inhaling and gradually calming down, she described victim Lavante Favors as a "cool, laid-back, chill" 25-year-old who worked construction on weekends and liked Whoppers from Burger King.

"He wasn't into it with nobody," she said. "He was mostly in the house."

His criminal history doesn't give the impression of a homebody, however.

From 2004 to 2010, police arrested Favors 15 times on charges ranging from simple assault to attempted first-degree murder in connection with a botched drug deal.

In 2009, Favors pleaded guilty to domestic assault after police said he "locked [Jordan] out of her home" and later "dragged her through the house and out onto the porch," court records state.

Map

3726 Dorris St

3726 Dorris St

In that case, Hamilton County General Sessions Court Judge David Bales placed Favors on probation and sentenced him to a 26-week "Batterer's Intervention" class, records show.

As of Friday evening, police had no suspects in Favors' death -- Chattanooga's second homicide of the year.

After finding Favors' body Thursday, Jordan told police she left the house at 3726 Dorris St. about 7 p.m. and returned two hours later.

Police spokeswoman Sgt. Jerri Weary declined to say whether the shooting was execution-style, but the bullet entered his head above and behind Favors' right ear.

Weary described the house as "ransacked" and "torn up."

"Just because [Jordan] came in and said she found him, that's doesn't necessarily take her out of the loop for being a suspect," the police spokeswoman said. "It could be his criminal past that caught up with him. It could be a family member; it could be his girlfriend. We don't know, and we won't speculate."

Investigators have ruled out suicide, but they must examine the bullet's trajectory, wound size and proximity of the gun to Favors' head for a clearer picture, Weary said.

"The ballistic results will tell the tale," Weary said.

Jordan said she left her boyfriend alone Thursday night, but she remained vague about where she went and what she was doing. She declined to answer questions about whether Favors was in a gang but said they had dated since he was 15 and she was 13.

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"He just came up and he asked me did I have a boyfriend," she recalled. "I was like 'no,' and we just started dating then."

Jordan said she plans to move out of the house that she and Favors shared. She expects it won't take long before someone boasts about killing her boyfriend.

"We're just waiting to hear something on the street," Jordan said. "Somebody's going to talk. They always talk."

Contact staff writer Chris Carroll at ccarroll@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6610.