Chris Wright
A Criminal Court jury on Tuesday was shown video of the downtown incident in which local businessman Chris Wright was shot and killed.
Prosecutors used multiple cameras at Patten Towers to show when Darryl T. "Too Tall" Roberts left his sixth floor room until he arrived back in the room shortly before midnight.
The defense showed a longer rendition that ended just before Roberts walked quickly toward Wright and shot him in the head.
Roberts, who was 58 at the time, is charged with criminal homicide. If convicted, there will be a second mini-trial involving a charge of a felon in possession of a weapon.
The video shows Roberts, wearing a bright red shirt, join two men on a stoop in front of the Patten, then he walks out of the camera view.
It shows Wright, dressed in white shorts and a blue shirt, walk near where Roberts and another man are on the stoop. There is no audio, but it appears that Wright engages in animated conversation with the men. At one point he stretches out one arm toward them, and at another he raises his arms.
Wright walks about six steps on toward E. 11th Street, but then he stops and turns toward his right in the direction where Roberts is now standing.
Roberts then pulls a gun, strides toward Wright, and shoots him once in the head. The prominent businessman slumps to the sidewalk and Wright heads back into the Patten. He is shown in the elevator punching with his right arm toward the side of the elevator.
Julia Ann Friedman testified that she was in Chattanooga at a birthday celebration with her three brothers and father. She said they were on the rooftop of the Pickle Barrel that overlooks the front of the Patten.
She said it was not noisy at that late hour, but she did not hear any words between Wright and the two men on the stoop.
Ms. Friedman said she did hear a loud shot.
She stated, "I looked down and saw a man lying on his back. There was a man in a red shirt leaning over him. The man casually walked away. It was so creepily casual that it freaked me out."
The witness said she told family members they needed to get inside the restaurant.
The video also showed a woman leave Roberts' room on the sixth floor after he had arrived back. She carried a yellow plastic bag of items down to her room on the third floor, then returned without the bag to the sixth floor. She was later identified as Tiffany Hawkins.
Detective Alvin Abbott said Ms. Hawkins was interviewed that night, and she did not mention taking any items from Roberts' room. The detective said the gun and the clothes that Roberts was wearing were not found.
Brian Houston, one of the men in front of the Patten that night, said he never heard Wright make any threats or racial slurs. Houston said he was talking over him, telling him to "get out of my face."
Houston said he was homeless before getting a place at the Patten. He said he and Roberts would regularly sit out front smoking a joint and sipping a drink before going to bed. He said he often told people to keep on moving and not get in their space.
Chris Burnette, who was also at the scene, said he did not hear any threats or racial slurs.
After the jury was selected late Monday, prosecutor Andrew Coyle told the jury that Roberts made many "choices" that he said led to the premeditated murder of the local businessman.
He told the jury, "You will see a man whose life was stolen and then you will see callous, cold actions by the defendant in the aftermath."
Public Defender Steve Smith contended the case is "a perfectly understandable tragedy."
He said he will ask the jury to find Roberts not guilty.
The late night incident, that brought a renewed focus on downtown safety, happened Sept. 28, 2023.
The victim was a Baylor School graduate who went on to Yale. He was the father of two young sons and a daughter, eight weeks old at the time.
The first jury in the case was tainted when the wrong charge was read to the panel two weeks ago.
Judge Boyd Patterson started over and had new jurors before the close of the day Monday.
Darryl Roberts