A Chattanooga man’s case charged with second-degree murder is headed to the grand jury after a short preliminary hearing in General Sessions Court.
James Shepheard III, 30, has been accused of murder in the death of Heather Walker. Shepheard allegedly sold the victim heroin laced with fentanyl, and Ms. Walker later overdosed and died as a result of the substance.
The victim’s body had eight different drugs in her system, including fentanyl, heroin, amphetamines, and morphine.
When investigators found her body, they also noticed a cell phone. The prosecution called a DEA agent involved in the investigation to the witness stand, and he explained what happened.
When they looked at her phone, they noticed only one conversation that indicated drug use. The conversation was with a mysterious person labeled as “BJ.” Those texts were copied and turned into a transcript at a later time.
The investigator then read through the last texts the victim sent this person. She mentioned “v-points” multiple times, confirming “BJ” sold heroin.
“Heroin is the only drug, in my 25 years of experience, that uses points (as a unit of measurement),” said the witness.
After determining “BJ’s” number belonged to a man named James Shepheard, they obtained permission to track the phone’s GPS coordinates. After several days of observing, the investigators confirmed the phone consistently went to and from his residence.
The DEA confirmed this when they began to observe Shepheard’s house in person. When he observed Shepheard leave the house, the GPS coordinates were altered. This was all of the proof the law needed in order to arrest Shepheard.
Before being arrested, the police searched his house, which was mentioned in texts to the victim. As Shepheard’s attorney Bill Speek made sure to point out, the police did not find any drugs or drug-related paraphernalia at his house.
While Shepheard had an opportunity to have his interview at the DEA recorded as an audio file and video file, he declined this option. According to the witness, Shepheard changed his story several times.
At first, Shepheard denied being the owner of his own phone. He later admitted it was his phone. The DEA then asked for consent to look at the defendant’s phone, which was given.
While the texts between the victim and Shepheard were nowhere to be found, they did find her number on his phone. Shepheard denied any involvement in drug transactions.
When asked about several drug-related text conversations with other people on his phone, he blamed his brother and cousin. Shepheard said he loaned out his phone to others, who then sold drugs.
Shepheard could not explain how that system worked, since he would have different clients trying to talk to different people at all hours of the day and night. Shepheard then changed his story once again, saying the clients would tell him about what they wanted, and then he would give the phone to his family and cousin.
Attorney Speek mentioned that Shepheard suffers from both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and is on medication for both conditions. He also said that two addresses were mentioned in those texts.
One was 6301, which is Shepheard’s residence. The other was 6310, which police said is the address of another notorious drug dealer on the street, who was investigated for six months over a year ago.
After listening to this witness and the cross-examination, Judge Lila Statom decided to bind the case over to the Grand Jury.