Zirrshaddia Scott, 23, the only victim to survive the Sept. 5, 2016 slayings at 7458 Pinewood Dr., testified against Stephen "Dollar" Mobley, 34, on Wednesday. Mobley is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder.
Ms.
Scott said she was close friends with victims Jasmine Hines, 22, and Rashaud Taylor, 23, both of whom she had known since elementary school. She said she met the defendant the night before the incident.
The witness said David Reed, another friend, had had a Labor Day party at the Pinewood Drive house on Sunday, Sept. 4. Ms. Scott said she and the other victims took Xanax pills from a bag Taylor supplied. She also said she used marijuana and drank alcohol that day, becoming intoxicated later that night.
Ms. Scott told district attorney Cameron Williams that Mobley was in possession of a handgun that night, which he pulled out once when the lights were turned off.
"To me it looked like a baby nine, and it had a little attachment under the barrel part of it ... like a laser or something," she said.
Jeremy Cotton, who also lived on Pinewood Drive at the time, expressed fear for his safety as reprisal for testifying. During his testimony, he was extremely hesitant to speak, often stopping to ask Judge Barry Steelman if he could be excused.
At one point, while defense attorney Mike Little was showing Cotton a map, the witness refused to give his aunt’s name.
"I received death threats from the side of the victim’s family," he said.
A moment later, he gestured to attorney Little, Judge Steelman, the court reporter, and then the jury.
"You received it. You received it. You received it," he said. "An eye for an eye or whatever."
When asked to clarify, he said the information could be found online.
"It’s on the news. You can thank the news for that cause I told them don’t be in here," Colton said. "I’m confused and scared about myself. ... I had somebody from the victim’s family come to my house, couple people come to my house. ... This gonna happen to you. This gonna happen to you. An eye for an eye. I don’t even know what the ---- happened. ... The judge has received a death threat. The jury has received a death threat. Anybody involved in this matter. ... I thought I was the only one but I’m not."
Cotton told district attorney Kevin Brown that he observed "mixed emotions" from the defendant the night before the incident and that at some point Mobley got upset.
Prosecutor Brown read from previous interviews conducted with Cotton, where he said that Ms. Hines and Ms. Scott were "cussing (Mobley’s) a--s out" after Ms. Scott threw up in a bathroom.
Mr. Cotton said he arrived home at about 4:30 a.m. Sometime after, Reed arrived at his house in a panic, crying.
"He just took a deep breath and was like, ‘He did it. He did it. ... He killed him. He killed him.’ Never gave a name," Cotton said.
When the witness said he had seen a figure down the street immediately after, but didn’t know if it was Mobley, prosecutor Brown read from a previous statement Cotton had given to a Chattanooga detective.
"David Reed came out, came knocking on my door. I let him in. Not even two minutes, officer, not even two minutes, I see Dollar ... So I knew (Mr. Reed) was running from him," the statement read.
"Did Mr. Mobley indicate that he was mad, that he felt like Ms. Scott and Ms. Hines were using him?" asked the prosecutor.
"Yes, that’s my assumption," said Cotton.
A Facebook live video from Ms. Hines account, which received 111 views, showed the three victims together at the Sunday party—Taylor sitting on a couch, Ms. Hines boxing with Reed, and Ms. Scott recording. Mobley was not in the video.
Ms. Scott believed only Ms. Hines’s friends could view the video. Attorney Little pointed out that friends of Ms. Hines might have shared the video with others. He also called attention to a moment in the recording where Reed stated the location of the party.
Ms. Scott said she had some interactions with Mobley that day, but no real conversations. During one interaction, the defendant asked her for a hit of a Xanax bar she was dividing with Ms. Hines.
"I shrugged him off. I didn’t know him and he was coming and asking for my drugs, and I was like, ‘No I’m not gonna share with you,’" Ms. Scott said.
During another interaction, later that night at Chattanooga Billiard Club near Shallowford Road, Ms. Scott said Mobley approached her and asked to play pool with her and Ms. Hines.
"I’m like, ‘No, we’re playing a game,’" Ms. Scott said. "He kindsa shrugged off with a little bit more of an attitude now."
The victim told the court that things got hectic after she and the other victims returned to 7458 Pinewood Dr. from the Chattanooga Billiard Club.
"I had drunk a beer. It was a hot beer and I’m pretty sure I threw up in the sink," Ms. Scott said.
She then remembered seeing Mobley in the bathroom mirror’s reflection.
"He was yelling. He was mad about the throw up, saying that we need to leave, someone needs to clean this up," she continued. "It was an argument. We all said our words. We all had our pieces."
Ms. Scott told prosecutor Williams that shortly after the argument, she passed out, and was unable to recall anything until she heard a "boom" and realized she had been shot.
"I remember hearing a noise and seeing blood on me, and I remember looking at Jasmine and Rashaud and seeing blood on them," she said, beginning to cry. "Jasmine was lying on the floor in-between the couch like kinda crouched over, and Rashaud was lying there, too. ... I called their names several times, and they weren’t moving, and I just ... I seen a lot of blood, so I knew it wasn’t good."
At that point, Ms. Scott managed to reach her phone and call 911. The recording was played for the jury. Ms. Scott could be heard crying and moaning, begging the dispatcher to send help.
"Two of my friends are dead and I’m shot up bad," Ms. Scott said in the recording.
When asked by the dispatcher, the victim couldn’t identify where she was or who shot her.
"Hurry! I’m about to die," she could be heard pleading. "I can’t move."
After police and EMS arrived, Ms. Scott remained at Erlanger for three days, where she was treated for two gunshot wounds, one on her arm and one on her right leg. A third bullet grazed her breast, but did not enter.