Khyree Thompson
Verronta Page
Tabitha GarrisonKhyree Thompson fired two rounds into Reginald Ballard, showed no remorse, and then told acquaintances on a cold February car ride that he would “do his 20 years if they catch me,” one of them testified Wednesday in Hamilton County Criminal Court.
On the second day of Thompson’s murder trial, prosecutors called Verronta Page, who said he, Thompson and Tabitha Garrison planned to rob Ballard of $4,000 he received in tax returns.
Page said he and Thompson armed themselves with two handguns and got a friend to drive them to the Cascades Motel, where Garrison had instructed them to go through a series of text messages on Feb. 19, 2015.
When they arrived, she was sitting on a curb outside room 48, Page said. Earlier that Feb. 19 night, Garrison had left a party in Dayton, Tenn., with Ballard, who expressed his desire to “spend some money on her,” prosecutors said. They booked the room together.
Garrison led them upstairs and knocked on the door. “[Ballard] says, ‘Who is it?'” Page recalled. “Tabitha says, ‘It’s me.’ She goes in, but leaves the door cracked just a pinch.”