Patrick Carmody's murder trial gets underway in 2010 Hixson slaying

Patrick Carmody, 45, is led Monday, Oct. 7, 2013, in Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Barry Steelman's courtroom for a hearing to request a separate trial from codefendant Billy Bob Partin, 40, (not pictured) for charges of first-degree murder and especially aggravated robbery in the 2010 slaying of Chance LeCroy. Judge Steelman denied Carmody's request.
Patrick Carmody, 45, is led Monday, Oct. 7, 2013, in Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Barry Steelman's courtroom for a hearing to request a separate trial from codefendant Billy Bob Partin, 40, (not pictured) for charges of first-degree murder and especially aggravated robbery in the 2010 slaying of Chance LeCroy. Judge Steelman denied Carmody's request.

On Sept. 9, 2010, between 11 a.m. and noon, Chance LeCroy was asleep.

Before he was slain that day, LeCroy went to work at FedEx, prosecutor Kevin Brown said Tuesday in Hamilton County Criminal Court. LeCroy, a 21-year-old package handler, loaded trucks from 3-8 a.m. Then he went to his home, at 1211 Johnston Terrace, had breakfast with his girlfriend, and lay down.

"His girlfriend laid there with him," Brown said. "She got up for work around 9 o'clock. She kissed him goodbye, and that was the last time she ever saw Chance alive."

Meanwhile, about 25 minutes across town, Patrick Carmody hopped into a 1980s primer-gray Chevrolet pickup truck with Ronald Pittman and Billy Bob Partin. Carmody lived in a cabin up by the lake on the property of Harbor Lights Yacht Club, Brown said. And he knew Partin and Pittman because they worked at the club. They also knew of Manny Alcantara, a coworker who bought and sold marijuana with LeCroy, his high school friend.

So Carmody knew - as they stopped at an Academy Sports store to buy fleece hoodies, and traveled down a dead-end road to 1211 Johnston Terrace, and entered the back bedroom before shooting him twice - that LeCroy sold marijuana, Brown said.

"And they were going to rob him," Brown said, "whatever money he may have had, and his marijuana."

So began the first day of Carmody's murder trial, nearly six years after the slaying. After jurors convened around 3 p.m., prosecutors shared their theory and said they planned to introduce eyewitness testimony and forensic evidence that pointed to Carmody as the killer.

Carmody, 47, pleaded not guilty to the charges of felony murder and especially aggravated robbery. Prosecutors said Pittman, who was charged with facilitation of felony murder and facilitation of especially aggravated robbery, plans to testify during the three-to-four-day trial. Partin, meanwhile, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2014 and will spend 20 years in prison without parole, records show.

Carmody's attorney, Lee Ortwein, cautioned jurors during opening arguments to be skeptical of Pittman's motives.

"Only Mr. Pittman can get up here and tell you the story the prosecutor just told you," Ortwein said. "He's going through that door, in civilian clothes, because he's not even in jail. They'll expect you to believe that he's doing this to get it off his chest. I find that insulting, and I hope you do, too."

James Tate, an investigator with the Chattanooga Police Department, said officers worked to sniff out leads. They had a lead in fall 2010 when an area officer shared some information from a woman that led to Partin. Officers continued to interview Partin, then family members, then Pittman, until a breakthrough in May 2012, Tate said. All three men were indicted that fall, records show.

"Did you develop alternative suspects?" Ortwein asked Tate.

"Names came up," Tate said, adding they were just rumors.

The issue of alternative suspects rose again when Emily Sailors testified.

LeCroy's girlfriend at the time, Sailors rushed from work to the scene when she found out about his death. She testified she told authorities about a possible suspect, a friend she had seen earlier that week who had been acting weird.

During cross-examination, Ortwein asked if there was bad blood between LeCroy and the man.

"Absolutely not," she said. "To my knowledge, there was no bad blood at all."

"What was he doing that was weird then?" Ortwein asked.

"OK, so Chance died on a Thursday," she said. "I met up with [him] that Monday. But he just kept asking questions that he already knew the answers to. He asked, 'If I wanted to get weed from Chance, would he have that?'"

Earlier in her testimony, Sailors said she and LeCroy sold together, and sometimes had as much as an ounce on hand.

"[The guy] knew that we had weed," she said. "If you're a buddy then, yeah, you can get it."

Ortwein also chipped away at the state's defense when LeCroy's roommate, Tucker King, testified that he was held at gunpoint by a man standing 15 feet away in the kitchen. Afterward, as the suspects fled, King said he looked out the window at the moving car.

"I saw definitely two [people], maybe a third, but it could have been a headrest," he said Tuesday.

Ortwein jumped on the opportunity, asking King to recall his former testimony when the charges were fresher.

"You mentioned that you didn't see anyone in the truck, do you recall that?" he asked.

King said he did not.

"But you're saying today that you saw their heads in the truck," Ortwein continued.

King said he did.

Minutes before 7 p.m., Judge Barry Steelman adjourned the court and said Carmody's trial resumes today at 9:30 a.m.

Contact staff writer Zack Peterson at 423-757-6347 or zpeterson@timesfreepress.com.

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