The man accused of shooting and killing a Chattanooga businessman downtown in September was indicted on a murder charge last week, court filings show.
Darryl Roberts, 57, is charged with first degree murder and being a convicted felon carrying a firearm, an indictment from Dec. 4 shows.
(READ MORE: Mayor on Market Street shooting: 'isolated, senseless, and brazen act of gun violence')
Members of the grand jury found enough evidence to charge Roberts with killing Chris Wright, 38, "unlawfully, intentionally and with premeditation" on Sept. 28, according to the indictment.
The indictment also cites Robert's 2009 conviction for aggravated assault in Hamilton County in charging him with unlawfully possessing a firearm.
Now Roberts' case will move to Criminal Court in Hamilton County. He is set to make his first appearance there Jan. 5 in front of Judge Boyd Patterson, court records show.
Surveillance video shown in General Sessions Court showed Roberts sitting outside Patten Towers with two friends that night when Wright walked past and stopped to talk to them.
(READ MORE: Suspect in fatal downtown Chattanooga shooting had long criminal history)
After a short exchange, Wright was seen starting to walk away but then turned around as Roberts approached him. Roberts then raised a handgun and shot Wright in the head.
The video, which had no sound, showed Wright falling to the ground after the shot.
Roberts was under the supervision of the Tennessee Department of Correction for crimes committed in Georgia at the time of the shooting, court records show. After serving around nine months in prison for drug and firearm convictions in 2019, court records said, he was released on parole in 2020.
In Hamilton County, Roberts also had an extensive criminal history, with more than 60 charges filed against him since the 1990s.
He had lived at Patten Towers since May, after passing a screening to move in, a spokesperson previously told the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Wright's death prompted local law enforcement officers to increase their presence downtown and spurred Patten Towers to add security cameras and private officers at the building.
Contact Ellen Gerst at egerst@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6319.