Defense attorney questions physical evidence in 2014 triple slaying

Skyler Allen, left, and Derek Morse appear in court in 2014 for the triple slaying in Lookout Valley.
Skyler Allen, left, and Derek Morse appear in court in 2014 for the triple slaying in Lookout Valley.

No eyewitness can place a 25-year-old man charged with first-degree murder at the scene of a Lookout Valley triple slaying that happened about three years ago, his defense attorney argued Thursday.

Skyler Allen is scheduled to go to trial Sept. 19 along with Derek Morse for the April 9, 2014, slayings of Caleb Boozer, John Lang and Jon Morris at an RV lot at 4504 Kellys Ferry Road.

But they shouldn't go as one, Allen's attorney says.

"There is a gross disparity of evidence between Mr. Morse and Mr. Allen," defense attorney Ben McGowan argued in Hamilton County Criminal Court. "The case against Mr. Morse is very strong, while the case against Mr. Allen is very circumstantial and weak. There's a likelihood of prejudice against Mr. Allen if they're tried together. And also there's an issue where there's information provided that suggests there's an alternative perpetrator, and we believe that information is coming from Mr. Morse."

Judge Barry Steelman hasn't ruled yet on whether to separate the defendants' cases. He listened to about an hour and a half of testimony, said he would take the matter under advisement and set the next court date for Aug. 18.

Supported by video footage, recorded interviews and statements from the defendants, prosecutors believe Jacob Allison, then a minor, drove Morse and Allen to the RV lot. There the older men opened fire at 6:50 p.m., killing three and wounding then-teenager Michael Callan, who survived the shooting and identified Morse. The men then traveled to Allison's grandparents' house in Trenton, Ga., stopped at a gas station, stayed at an America's Best Value Inn & Suites and ate at a Subway, all while driving a black Honda, prosecutors say.

Prosecutors pointed out that Dennis McNabb, the father of Allen's girlfriend, saw Allison and Morse drive up to Allen's trailer at 1324 Burgess Road, about 4 miles from the shooting, in a black Honda.

"He [McNabb] said it was at 6:15 p.m.," Henry Ritter, a Hamilton County officer who's working the case, said on the witness stand Thursday. "He saw them 10 minutes later and they were carrying guns to the car. There was an additional person there: Mr. Allen."

Morse was arrested in the early morning hours of April 10, 2014; Allison was booked April 21, 2014; and Allen was charged at the end of the month. Allison, 19, was also arrested earlier this year on an aggravated assault charge, but prosecutors dropped that charge in April before he was indicted on a new case.

McGowan countered that authorities can't place Allen at the crime scene, at Allison's grandparents' house, or at the gas station - that his name only came up in the investigation because of Allison, Allison's brother and Morse.

Also at issue are three alleged murder weapons that authorities found after the crime in a culvert near Kellys Ferry Road.

"You spoke before of some guns," McGowan said to Ritter. "Tell the court how you discovered those."

"We received information from multiple sources the guns were placed somewhere off Interstate 24 behind some of the houses back there," Ritter said.

"It's fair to say that information came from Mike Shavers?" McGowan asked.

"In addition to other parties," Ritter said.

"This would be Jacob Allison's brother and the son of Machelle Shavers," McGowan said. "And at the time he provided some information, he has a pending indictment for attempted first-degree murder."

Michael Shavers, 23, has since been indicted on two counts of attempted first-degree murder for allegedly shooting at his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend in the parking lot of a Waffle House on Feb. 11, 2015. His next court date is Sept. 27 before Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Tom Greenholtz.

Other witnesses with skeptical motivations tried to connect Allen to the evidence, McGowan argued.

McNabb, who "did not like Skyler Allen," told police one of the recovered weapons, a machine-taped .22-caliber rifle, belonged to him, McGowan said. But before McNabb could positively identify the weapon, police sent it and two others off to the Tennessee Bureau of Information for testing, Ritter said.

"What other physical evidence implicated Mr. Allen?" McGowan asked the officer.

"He [McNabb] described clothing Mr. Allen was wearing [that evening]: A dark hoodie, his hair pushed up in a toboggan and dark-colored pants," Ritter said. "We did a search warrant at his house and located items that matched."

"So, based on Mr. McNabb's description, there is clothing Mr. Allen was wearing sometime before the shooting that matches clothing found at his house, and a gun Mr. McNabb claims to have seen that appears to match the gun that was found any other physical evidence?" McGowan asked.

Not physical evidence, Ritter said.

Contact staff writer Zack Peterson at zpeterson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow him on Twitter @zackpeterson918.

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