Prosecution Describes Horrific Slaying Of Keiara Patton; Defense Says Patton Was Fed Up With Boyfriend

Prosecutor Andrew Coyle on Tuesday told a Criminal Court jury that the scene at College Hill Courts on May 13, 2014 was “horrific.” He described an officer discovering 20-year-old, 95-pound Keiara Patton “lying in a pool of her own blood” with a catastrophic gunshot wound to her head. 

“Every breath she took was an attempt to stay alive for (her) kids,” he said.

Prosecutor Coyle said that while Ms.

Patton was “dying on the floor,” the man she had been arguing with, Taylor Satterfield, was nowhere to be found. He said Satterfield, her boyfriend and the father of her two children, had made the decision to end their argument with a .40 caliber bullet.

Opening statements were made for the trial of Satterfield in Judge Don Poole’s courtroom. Satterfield faces a charge of first-degree murder.

Prosecutor Coyle said that after the slaying the defendant gave three conflicting stories to officers during an interview. First, the defendant said he found Ms. Patton dead and a man in a red shirt running away from the scene. Next, he said he had threatened to kill himself, put a gun to his head, and the weapon went off when Ms. Patton grabbed it.

During the last four minutes of the interview, said prosecutor Coyle, the defendant told police that the victim had come at him with knives before she was shot.

Defense attorney Ted Engel said the defendant was not with his girlfriend as she was dying because the police had taken him away. He said Satterfield lied during the interviews because he could only think about getting out of the room.

Attorney Engel said the slaying occurred as a result of Ms. Patton being fed up with her boyfriend.

“The evidence in this case shows … that she charged at Taylor and that tragedy ensued,” he said.

He told the jury that Satterfield and the victim met in high school and began an “on-again-off-again” relationship, eventually having two children. During a period when they were split up, Satterfield started a relationship with another young woman, Breasia Hubbard, and fathered a child with her. However, he couldn’t help but return to Ms. Patton, said attorney Engel.

On May 13, 2014, after spending the night with Ms. Hubbard, the defendant got into an argument with Ms. Patton at her apartment in College Hill Courts, said the defense. During the altercation, Satterfield discovered that his clothing, kept inside a storage container that also held a gun, had been put on the back porch.

Attorney Engel said the defendant was carrying the gun inside when Ms. Patton charged him “with a knife in each hand.”

“In a moment of panic, of reaction, Taylor steps back, trying to get away from this threat. The gun in his hand goes off,” said attorney Engel. “The woman he loves has just been shot. He’s the one who did it. He runs out of the apartment.”

Breasia Hubbard, 20, testified that the victim had spoken about her intention to stab Satterfield only days before the incident.

Ms. Hubbard told the jury she had texted the defendant on May 11, 2014, Mother’s Day, but he had been staying at Ms. Patton’s apartment and Ms. Patton had texted her back. What started as an angry exchange of messages became a phone call that lasted for four hours, said the witness, both women expressing that they were tired of Satterfield.

“(Ms. Patton) had mentioned that she had bought some knives for (Satterfield) cause she was tired of him going back and forth,” said Ms. Hubbard. “She said she was gonna stab him so maybe he would act right.”

The witness said she hadn’t believed Ms. Patton would actually assault the defendant.

Prosecutor Cameron Williams questioned the reliability of Ms. Hubbard’s testimony, pointing out that in a statement to police right after the slaying, Ms. Hubbard said she and Ms. Patton had only spoken on the phone “about positive things” and there had been no mention of knives.

During court on Tuesday, the witness told the jury Satterfield had stayed with her the night before the incident and driven her in the morning to Howard High School. However, prosecutor Williams said that Ms. Hubbard had previously told police that she and the defendant hated each other and were not in a relationship.

Ms. Hubbard agreed she had lied to officers out of fear. She said she was now telling the truth.

“You’re not sure what the lie is and what the truth is,” said prosecutor Williams, proceeding to point out that Satterfield was the father of her child and that she had his name tattooed on her arm.

Defense attorney Coty Wamp asked the witness why she was so terrified of the officers.

“I didn’t wanna have nothing to do with it at all,” said Ms. Hubbard.

Other witnesses, such as Jeff Kirk of the Chattanooga Police Department and Kimberly Bell, who had been working for the Chattanooga Housing Authority, described the scene after the incident.

Officer Kirk, who described College Hill Courts as a high crime area, said when he arrived on the scene Ms. Patton was in the fetal position on the floor in a puddle of blood, just “trying to breathe.” He said it “seemed like the stove was turned around or moved out of place.”

He said he did not recall seeing any knives.

Ms. Bell said she left her office when people began screaming outside. Following the crowd toward the apartment, she said she ran into Satterfield, though she didn’t know who he was at the time. She said he was hysterical and told her someone had “shot (his) b****.”

The witness said that in the apartment she found the refrigerator in a strange position and the stove pulled out from the wall. She said Ms. Patton “had some keys clenched in her hands.” She told the jury she vaguely remembered a knife, but it didn’t seem out of place. Ms. Bell said she was focused on the victim.

“(Ms. Patton) was taking real deep heavy breaths, and I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ And I just stood there and started praying,” the witness said. “I was just stuck cause I’m like, ‘This girl, she’s fixing to die, and I can’t walk out here and just leave her on this floor.’”

Ms. Bell said she stayed with the victim until EMS arrived.