Darryl Roberts enters court Wednesday
photo by John Shearer
The lone witness to testify Wednesday in the 2023 downtown killing of Chattanooga businessman Chris Wright said defendant Darryl Roberts had a casual manner immediately after shooting Wright.
“I saw a cavalier way in which Mr. Roberts was walking away,” said Dylan Padgett in the jury trial in Judge Boyd Patterson’s Criminal Court. “He seemed confident, nonchalant.”
Mr. Padgett was describing what he had witnessed while sitting on the second-floor patio of the Pickle Barrel a few feet away from where the Sept. 28, 2023, late evening shooting took place in front of the Patten Towers building by Market Street and Georgia Avenue.
Prior testimony said Wright had been walking back to his vehicle from Jack Brown’s Beer and Burger Joint in the Patten Parkway after a day of drinking at several locations with friends on the Thursday of the long weekend in which his 20-year Baylor School reunion was being held.
Mr. Padgett, who was the last state witness to testify before any defense witnesses are called when court resumes Thursday about 9:30 a.m., said he had been to a concert with family.
He said he had three alcoholic drinks there and then they went to Pickle Barrel afterward, where he had one drink. He said they were sitting at a table on the corner end closest to where the incident occurred and that he did not hear any conversation between Wright and Roberts before the shooting due to the noise of bar patrons.
“I heard a loud shot and then I noticed them,” he said. “It was a loud popping bang. I own weapons and I knew what it was.”
He said everyone realized they needed to get inside for safety reasons, and one person in the party called 911. Before he went inside, he said he saw a person in a red shirt, whom he later learned was Roberts, standing over Wright before walking away.
A detective on Tuesday said there was a statement from Roberts on his cell phone that "I just smoked somebody." He said he needed to "leave to clear my head."
Police said Roberts left his Patten Towers residence after the incident, but was captured in Brainerd.
Roberts, who has been previously convicted of multiple crimes dating back to the early 1990s, is charged with criminal homicide. He was 58 at the time of the shooting.
Wright, a former Baylor and Yale athlete, was the father of three small children.
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