A Chattanooga man arrested in connection with a 2019 homicide was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.
Toddie Olerrial Woods Jr. was sentenced by Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Boyd Patterson shortly after entering a guilty plea. Woods’ brother, Omerrieal Dywane Woods, has also been charged in the case.
Toddie Woods, 30, was arrested July 16, 2019, by Hamilton County deputies in connection with the shooting death of 25-year old Rigoberto Jarquin inside his Douglas Heights apartment. Two others were injured in the incident.
Woods was sentenced Friday and ordered to begin serving his time immediately. He was also charged with attempted first-degree murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. The status of those charges was unclear Wednesday.
On July 14, 2019, Chattanooga police officers responded to a call of multiple people being shot shortly before 4 a.m. at the Douglas Heights Apartments, according to an affidavit from the Police Department.
Once “on scene, officers located (victim one) with a gunshot wound to the shoulder, (victim two) with a gunshot wound to the thigh” the affidavit said. “And Rigoberto Jarquin, with multiple gunshot wounds, deceased on the apartment floor.”
Detectives with the Chattanooga Police Department’s violent crimes unit obtained video surveillance where both Woods and his brother, Omerrieal Woods, can be seen.
“I was able to review the video on site,” the affidavit stated. “I observed multiple Black males attempting to force entry into (the) apartment … Toddie is met by his brother, Omerrieal Woods, who hands him a gun. Toddie then walks through the group and fires multiple rounds through the door of (the) apartment, killing Jarquin and wounding (victim one and victim two).”
In the video, Toddie Woods and Omerrieal Woods — who was arrested by Chattanooga police the day after the shooting — were seen fleeing the scene.
The Douglas Heights Apartments opened their doors in 2016 to much fanfare, offering a one-of-a-kind living option to students and other residents in Chattanooga in the central downtown location on Douglas Street near the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga campus.
As previously reported by the Chattanooga Times Free Press, the Woods brothers were guests of Jarquin, who let them into the building.
Toddie Woods is to serve his sentence in the Tennessee Department of Corrections, according to the order signed by Patterson, obtained by the Times Free Press.
Omerrieal Woods, 32, who faces two counts of facilitation of a felony and one count of facilitation of first-degree murder, is due to appear before Patterson on Nov. 8.
Contact La Shawn Pagán at lpagan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476. Follow her on Twitter @LaShawnPagan.