Jury retires for weekend with no verdict in murder trial

Briston Smith
Briston Smith

A Hamilton County, Tenn., jury has not yet decided whether to convict Briston Smith of felony murder for his role in a fatal drug deal in 2015.

Smith also faces an attempted especially aggravated robbery charge. If convicted, the 20-year-old will spend life in prison.

The jury began deliberations around 8 p.m. Friday, but went home around 9:30 p.m., according to Brian Pearce, an attorney for the defendant.

Pearce said in a text message that he expected the jury would renew deliberations Monday morning.

Smith, then 18, was the "lynchpin" in a planned robbery that killed Charles Holsey, a 19-year-old Berry College student he didn't know before their meeting in a North Chattanooga parking lot on March 2, 2015, prosecutors said.

Smith ordered his friend, Abram Young, then a minor, to "shoot (Holsey's) - -" when the 19-year-old refused to hand over his marijuana they were trying to steal, prosecutors said.

Afterward, Smith and Young dashed into their friend Robert Thompson's car, never reporting the shooting to police until detectives located Smith three days later from a fingerprint on Holsey's vehicle.

Officers charged Thompson, Smith and Young with felony murder and attempted especially aggravated robbery after interviewing Smith, who said there was a planned robbery, and Holsey's girlfriend, who witnessed the shooting in the front passenger seat.

Smith, however, maintains detectives coerced him into that confession and said Friday on the witness stand that he didn't have a plan, didn't know Young was armed, and didn't command his friend to shoot.

"Still to this day, I don't know what happened," Smith told jurors as he described his version of events. "I don't know why the gun was pulled, I don't know why the gun was shot."

Smith said he called Thompson, then 18, and his girlfriend, Jayda Mayhue, for a ride back to North Chattanooga from Washington Hills Recreation on Highway 58 around 7 p.m. on March 2.

On the way, Smith said he asked them to pick up Young so they could purchase marijuana from a guy Smith had been texting throughout the day. Neither man had met the other before that night, prosecutors said, and Smith explained on the stand he had meant to text someone else.

Smith said he brought about $130 to the deal, which was $30 less than Holsey's asking price.

"Does that mean you were going to do something dishonest?" defense attorney Brian Pearce asked him.

"No," Smith said.

"What does that mean?" Pearce asked.

"Means we could have talked him down, or he could have sold us less," Smith replied.

Inside Holsey's car at 310 Sylvan St., Smith said he was struggling to read the vibe. Holsey wasn't as friendly as he had imagined. There was no marijuana in view. He tried to make small talk for four or five minutes.

"I was definitely nervous," Smith testified. "Either you're going to be an honest guy and sell me some weed, or you're going to pull a move. In my mind, I thought he was going to pull a move."

Around this time, Smith said Young drew his weapon and told Holsey to "gimme that - - ."

After seeing the gun, Smith said he got out of Holsey's black BMW and dashed back to Thompson's white Taurus, which was one to two parking spots away. Young jumped into the car after the gunshots and explained to an angry group that Holsey had been reaching toward his glove compartment, Smith said.

Defense attorneys pointed out that nobody stole marijuana from Holsey, nobody discussed a plan in the car, and nobody knew Young brought a gun.

"He didn't need to steal marijuana. From what he said today, he could get it anywhere," Pearce said, referencing Smith's testimony that he had access to his brother's marijuana. "Then he manages to come up with a story that exonerates him from felony murder, a charge which he doesn't know exists. Then he comes up with a plan to get himself out of trouble. That's the state's theory, because in order for him to be guilty, there had to be a plan."

Even so, prosecutors argued, everyone in the group knew Young was carrying a backpack that he sometimes used to carry a gun.

The prosecution added that Smith - who spent the next three days in a drug-fueled haze, terrified of being blamed for a murder he didn't commit - destroyed his cellphone and lost other pieces of evidence before police picked him up on March 5. And that Smith and his friends had plenty of time to form a plan, which they contradicted at various points.

"Immediately after the homicide, they drop Young off and then they go back to Robert's brother's house," prosecutor Cameron Williams said. "And they're there together, and they're talking about the homicide. That's plenty of time.

"And they don't have to change a whole lot: 'Just say I never got in the car. If I didn't get in the car, I can't be guilty. Just you didn't know he had a gun.' It's not that hard," he said. "You take those few things away and he thinks he's scot-free. Jayda says he didn't get in the car. Robert does. Robert says he sees the marijuana in the testimony. He sees a light pop on and he sees the marijuana. Robert also says he sees the car rocking back and forth, a scuffle - that's corroborative evidence for [Holsey's girlfriend]."

A good amount of Smith's trial dealt with attorneys highlighting inconsistent statements among the eyewitnesses.

Thompson, whose case is pending, asserted his Fifth Amendment right when asked to testify Thursday. But defense attorneys played two recordings in which Thompson gave two slightly different accounts of where Smith was standing during the shooting.

"In the sworn statement, being in court, he testified that Mr. Smith was in the car at the time of the shots," the judge said during an out-of-jury hearing. "But in the unsworn statement to law enforcement, he told them Mr. Smith was not in the car."

Prosecutors also asked Mayhue, who is not charged in the case, why she told jurors that Smith was halfway inside the car when the gunshots started, when she previously testified that she saw both men running back to Thompson's car after the gunshots.

Young, who is being tried as an adult, did not testify. He is scheduled to return to court July 27.

Contact staff writer Zack Peterson at zpeterson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow him on Twitter @zackpeterson918.

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