A man on trial for the 2018 shooting death of a woman in Chattanooga was found guilty of murder in Hamilton County Criminal Court on Thursday evening, according to a news release from the Hamilton County District Attorney’s Office.
A jury found Tamarion Terell Johnson, 21, guilty of second-degree murder and aggravated assault in the homicide of 19-year-old Shawnquell Stanfield.
The homicide occurred on Sept. 24, 2018, at the intersection of North Chamberlain and Wilder Street.
Chattanooga police Sgt. Joe Neighbors, the lead detective on the case, testified that Johnson was attempting to rob Stanfield of her drugs in a car he had stolen. When Stanfield bolted from the car, Johnson, who was 17 at the time, shot multiple rounds in the direction of the Stanfield.
In his closing argument, Executive Assistant District Attorney General Cameron Williams read a letter Johnson wrote to his ex-girlfriend a few days after the shooting. In the letter, Johnson said, “I’m sorry for killing ‘Phat Baby'” (a nickname for Stanfield). “I really didn’t want to. All she had to do was give everything up. But she didn’t. She ran. So I laid her down.”