Prosecution says a witness changed her story in fatal 2015 shooting case

Briston Smith
Briston Smith

A Chattanooga felony murder trial took a spin this morning after prosecutors said an eyewitness who had previously testified changed her story on the stand.

Jayda Mayhue said today Briston Smith was halfway back into her boyfriend's car when Abram Young opened fire on Charles Holsey, a 19-year-old college student who had agreed to sell them marijuana on March 2, 2015, in a parking lot at 310 Sylvan St.

photo Briston Smith

"So he was getting halfway into the white taurus when you hear the gunshots?" defense attorney Rip Biggs asked.

"Yes," Mayhue said.

"How are you certain?" Biggs asked.

"Cause the door opened and I saw him," Mayhue replied.

That was news to prosecutors, who say Mayhue never mentioned that fact during three previous hearings in which she testified.

"You hear the gunshots and then," prosecutor Cameron Williams said, presenting Mayhue with a transcript of her former testimony, "they run and jumped in the car."

He yanked the piece of paper away and walked back to the podium.

"That's what you told police, but that's not what you told this jury today," Williams said.

"No," said Mayhue, who has never been charged in the homicide.

Smith, Young, and Mayhue's boyfriend, Robert Thompson, are all charged with felony murder and attempted especially aggravated robbery in connection with Holsey's homicide.

Smith, now 20, is the first to go to trial and faces a life sentence if prosecutors convince jurors he "unlawfully" killed Holsey while the trio was committing a felony.

Since the trial started Wednesday, prosecutors have argued Smith planned to rob Holsey with his friends and was inside the car when he ordered Young to shoot Holsey after a scuffle over marijuana prices.

Defense attorneys counter there was no plan or scuffle between Smith and Holsey. They used Mayhue's testimony to bolster their argument since she put Smith just outside the vehicle.

"So (Young) sits in the car and shuts the door?" attorney Biggs asked.

"Yes. I hear the door close," Mayhue said, adding Smith never got inside Holsey's black BMW.

"How certain are you (Smith) never got in the car?" Biggs asked.

"Very certain because the door was always open," Mayhue said. "I could see his hand and his head."

According to testimony, Smith texted the wrong number by one digit and ended up communicating with Holsey.

While riding with Mayhue and her boyfriend Thompson, who picked him up from a recreation center on Highway 58 that day, Smith asked if they could pick up Young.

Young came out with a backpack, which Mayhue knew he used to carry a firearm, prosecutors say. They drove to meet Holsey and his girlfriend, who testified Wednesday, and settled on the parking lot behind the Kangaroo gas station on Dallas Street.

Mayhue said she and Thompson were chatting about his senior project, which was due the next morning, and how he didn't feel well from giving plasma that day. He wanted to get home, she said.

After the shooting, he sped back up Sylvan Street while Holsey went the opposite direction.

Everyone was upset with Young and questioned why he would fire a gun over something inconsequential like marijuana, Mayhue said.

Young replied he opened fire when Holsey reached for his glove compartment, Mayhue said. They dropped him off at his girlfriend's house. Then she, Thompson and Smith went to Thompson's older brother's place to calm down.

They didn't know what happened, if the gunshots killed anyone, until Mayhue said she saw a news article about 30 minutes later. Someone had crashed near the 600 block of Market Street and gunshots were possibly involved. That was half a mile away from the shooting - and where Holsey ended up wrecking. He would die later that night at Erlanger hospital.

Judge Barry Steelman called for a lunch break after prosecutors began playing the interview Smith did with police three days after the shooting.

They will continue watching when they return at 1:45 p.m.

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