Christopher Lamar LoweThe charges filed against a 25-year-old man accused of killing a father in the East Lake Courts were sent to a Hamilton County grand jury Tuesday.
After a lengthy preliminary hearing, General Sessions Court Judge Lila Statom said there was enough probable cause on three of Christopher Lamar Lowe’s charges – first-degree murder, especially aggravated robbery and unlawful possession of a firearm as a convicted felon – to bind over the charges. Lowe’s aggravated assault charge folded into the other charges, she said.
Statom also said Lowe violated his probation, and she would order that sentence into execution.
Lowe’s attorney, Donna Miller, said she could not comment extensively on a pending case, but said the state has a weak argument that hinges on circumstantial evidence.
“I do not believe they will be able to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt [in Criminal Court],” she said.
Prosecutors say Lowe mortally shot Percy Allen IV, 20, who was found Oct. 20, 2015, with a wound to the neck in his home in East Lake Courts at 2800 Fourth Ave.
During the preliminary hearing, Chattanooga Police Department Detective Matthew Puglise said no one reported any gunshots that day.
One witness walked inside Allen’s apartment after seeing his 2-year-old daughter alone in the front yard for 20 minutes. Inside, the witness saw ransacked rooms, items scattered on the floor and then called 911 at 12:55 p.m.
Puglise said apartment complex security footage showed a person dressed in a blue hoodie running out of the apartment complex at 12:07 p.m. The person was lugging a dresser drawer, which police found abandoned about one block away, with small bits of marijuana inside. Puglise said police also located the blue hoodie in a trash can.
Police said that before the shooting, Lowe carried a dresser drawer through East Lake Courts, dropped it to the ground and emptied the contents into his pocket. Police said the apartment complex’s surveillance showed Lowe going into another woman’s house before leaving around 12:12 p.m.
During the hearing, prosecutor Kristen Spires played a recording of an interview between Puglise, another detective, and Lowe, who gave a fuzzy timeline of events on Oct. 20:
Lowe woke up around 8:45 a.m. inside the home of the woman he’d been talking to for two weeks. He went to the store. Then he walked over to Allen’s house, but he wasn’t there, so Lowe returned to the woman’s house. A short while later, he checked Allen’s apartment again.
This time, he found his friend there with a little girl. In the interview, Lowe said he bought “a blunt,” smoked it, left and watched a movie. Then he waited for the woman to get off work and left East Lake Courts around noon.
In the interview, Lowe described Allen as “an acquaintance” and defended himself by saying his DNA would be inside Allen’s house since they played video games together.
On the day of Allen’s death, Lowe got a ride from his friend Cordarius Williams, who testified Tuesday that he drove Lowe to get a white hoodie and some socks.
Later that day, Lowe turned himself in to police. He is being held on $570,000 bond in the Hamilton County Jail.
Allen’s mother, who was seated in court in the front row with her family, was not immediately available for comment.
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