Jamaal Byrd talks with one of his lawyers, Ryan Hanzelik, during the opening of his trial Tuesday. Byrd is accused of shooting and killing Terrance Etchison at the Wilcox Boulevard Kanku’s in 2012.A jury continues deliberating the verdict this morning in the murder trial of a 32-year-old Chattanooga man charged with shooting another at a local gas station in 2010.
Jamaal Byrd is charged with first-degree murder in the Feb. 27, 2010, shooting death of Terrance Etchison, 27, at the Wilcox Boulevard Kanku’s gas station.
Attorneys finished closing arguments Thursday afternoon before Criminal Court Judge Rebecca Stern. The jury deliberated for two hours before being sent home at 5 p.m.
Byrd’s defense attorneys, father and son Fred and Ryan Hanzelik, argued throughout the trial that their client acted in self-defense and pointed at testimony that Etchison threatened Byrd inside and outside the gas station.
The pair tried to show through security camera footage that Etchison may have been holding a weapon, but all the witnesses testified that they saw no weapon in Etchison’s hands.