by Judy Frank
posted May 15, 2008
A Criminal Court jury deliberated two hours on Thursday afternoon and resumed talks Friday morning in a gang slaying in South Chattanooga.
The panel in the courtroom of Judge Rebecca Stern took a lunch break and was still deliberating at mid-afternoon.
Timothy "Timboo" Evans confessed Thursday morning that he killed Adrian "A.D." Patton.
But the only reason he did it, he told a Hamilton County Criminal Court jury, was because Skyline Bloods leader Michael "Mike-Mike" Daniels ordered him to do so.
"I felt like it was either me or (Patton) so I had no choice," he said.
Prior to the day of the shooting, Evans said, he liked being part of the Skyline Bloods.
"I had no intention of leaving the gang," he said. "I felt loved."
And he loved Daniels, he said, because the gang leader "took care of me. I thought he loved me, too."
He said he took his gun along with him when he went with Daniels to Emma Wheeler Homes the day of the shooting because he thought there might be trouble when they got there.
"A.D. had supposedly shot up (Daniels' sister's) house so I figured something could happen," he told jurors.
When he loaded the gun, he said, he "loaded it with a bandana (in his hand) so my prints wouldn't be on the bullets."
After the shooting, he said, he felt sick and remorseful.
And when he learned that Daniels was going around telling people that he didn't know why Evans had killed Patton, he said, he felt betrayed.
"He knew why I did it," Evans insisted. "He told me to do it . . . It hurted me (when Daniels lied)."
It was at that point, he said, that he first wondered whether being in the gang was a good thing.
In closing arguments, prosecutor said Evans is guilty of premeditated first-degree murder because he is the person who shot and killed Adrian Patton.
And Michael “Mike-Mike” Daniels is equally guilty, they said during closing arguments, because he is the person who ordered Evans to “handle” Patton during the confrontation at Emma Wheeler Homes.
“Timbo went there armed, prepared to kill . . . prepared to do whatever Mike-Mike wanted him to do,” Assistant District Attorney General Bates Bryan said. “And Mike-Mike directed Timbo to execute Adrian Patton. He thought he had been disrespected, and he was angry.”
Patton was no threat to either Evans or Daniels, the prosecutor noted. “He came there to talk, he was not armed, and they knew that.”
But defense attorney Jesse Dalton, representing Daniels, denied that his client had anything to do with the killing. He said the real reason Evans killed Patton is because he thought it would bring him higher status in the Skyline Bloods, the gang to which both men belonged.
“What do we know beyond a reasonable doubt?” Mr. Dalton asked. “We know that Mr. Patton’s dead and Mr. Evans killed him.”
Attorney John McDougal, representing Evans, said, “Murder is bad, but this was done under duress. A gang is set up the same way the army is set up. You follow orders or you’re punished . . . (Evans) had no choice. That was drilled into him for two and a half years. . . . He was programmed. He was a soldier.”
His client was only 17 at the time he shot and killed Patton, the attorney said. He thought of the Skyline Bloods as his “family”; Daniels was the head of that family and, as such, had to be obeyed.
The two defense attorneys did agree on one thing - jurors could decide to convict their clients simply because they were members of a gang.
“When (prosecutors) talk, it’s always Timboo and Mike-Mike, never Mr. Evans and Mr. Daniels,” Mr. McDougal said.
“Gangs were there, there’s no denying that,” Mr. Dalton noted. “But that’s not what’s on trial here. Mr. Evans and Mr. Daniels are not on trial because they belonged to a gang. The question is who killed Mr. Patton.”
Further, Mr. Dalton said, there’s no proof beyond a reasonable doubt that his client was the head of the gang and, consequently, could order Evans around.
“This is not an easy case, and I’d hate to be in your shoes,” he told jurors.
But prosecutors said the case is not complicated.
Both Evans and Daniels are guilty, Assistant District Attorney General Neal Pinkston and Bryan both told jurors.
Daniels wanted Patton dead, and Evans was perfectly happy to kill him because he thought it would improve his status in the gang, they argued.
“Timboo was fine with the murder until he heard that Mike-Mike was out there denying that he had anything to do with it,” prosecutor Bryan said.
Further, he said, Evans’ claim that he killed Patton because he was afraid of Daniels is spurious and legally invalid.
“Duress is not a defense,” he said. According to Tennessee law, “This defense is unavailable to a person who intentionally, knowingly or recklessly got himself involved in a situation in which it was probable that he would be subject to compulsion.”
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