RICHMOND, Va. — Day two of the murder trial for two of five men charged in a shootout that left an innocent 15-year-old bystander dead resumed Thursday. A total of 12 witnesses were called by the prosecution, bringing the two day total to 16.
Tynashia Humphrey was walking home from the store with family when prosecutors say she was caught in the crossfire of a shootout near Gilpin Court on the evening of September 12, 2022.
Tyree Coley, 21, and Savonne Henderson, 24, are being tried together and have pled not guilty to all the charges.
Both men are accused of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, shooting in a public place and shooting from a vehicle.
You can read CBS 6’s coverage of day one here.
Prosecutors allege Coley had an ongoing beef with another man who was at Gilpin Court that day. They said Coley and the four other co-defendants —who they allege are in a gang together — shot at that man, who eventually returned fire.
Attorneys for the defendants argued investigators incorrectly identified their clients as suspects in a rush to judgment, and no witness places them in Gilpin Court at the time of the shooting.
The case is being tried by Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorneys Andy Johnson and Katherine Groover.
Stephen Mutnick is representing Henderson. Gregory Sheldon is representing Coley.
Richmond Circuit Court Judge Phillip Hairston is presiding over the trial.
Witness #5 - Medical Examiner
The first witness of the day was an assistant chief medical examiner who said Humphrey was killed by a single gunshot to the back.
She said no bullet fragments were recovered from her and therefore could no determine what type of gun fired the bullet or how far away it was fired from.
Witness #6 - RPD Officer
The next witness someone who was part of the RPD investigative team at the time of the shooting.
He said he was part of the team tasked to find cars suspected of being involved in the shooting
He said one of them was a light-colored BMW that they found on the city’s Southside the day after the shooting.
The officer said the driver was Rarmil Pettiford, one of the other men charged in this case, and a backpack was found in the backseat of the car. He said inside the backpack were ski masks, .223-caliber magazine, and a 9mm magazine.
On cross-examination, the officer confirmed that neither Coley nor Henderson (the two men currently on trial) were in the car and there were no documents connected to them either.
Witness #7 - The Other Shooter
The third witness of the day was the intended target of the shooting, who prosecutors ended the first day of the trial with concerns about whether he would testify or just invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
After some discussions in court without jurors and two stoppages when jurors were present, because he invoked the Fifth, the witness eventually answered questions posed to him. Prosecutors had gotten him written promises from the state and federal level that what he said on the stand would not be used against him in the future.
The witness appeared in handcuffs and a prison uniform as he is behind held on charges unrelated to the Sept. 12 shooting.
The witness said on the day in question, he was walking out of a store towards his car parked on N. First St, facing away from E. Charity St.
He said a gray or black car caught his attention when it stopped in that intersection and the windows rolled down. He said he assumed they were people he knew, so he waved, but then gunshots started.
The witness testified that a black car was first in the intersection, followed by a light car and gunfire came from both.
The witness said he took cover behind his driver side door, pulled a gun from his hip and then returned fire. He did not know how many shots he fired, but emptied the magazine that was in his .40-caliber Glock pistol. He was then shown the gun in court and confirmed it was his. He said he only fired up the street, towards the cars in the intersection and not towards the sidewalk or grassy areas.
The witness said he left the scene after the shooting, but spoke with police the next day.
He confirmed on questioning that damage to the back of his jeep, including bullet holes and one bullet lodged in the rear, was new.
When asked, he said he told police he thought Coley could have been the shooter as he did not have issues with anyone else he thought might shoot at him. Groover then asked what history the witness had with the suspects and he said that he knew Coley, also known as "Sticky" and was involved in an incident with him and have feuded back and forth since.
On cross examination by Sheldon, Coley's attorney, the witness confirmed he had been convicted of misdemeanor petit larceny.
While the reason for asking this was mentioned by the defense in court, CBS 6 Legal Analyst Todd Stone says any witness who testifies can be cross examined about any felony conviction or a misdemeanor involving a crime of moral turpitude (lying, cheating, or stealing) and could tell jurors to consider that when weighing the credibility of the witness (and likely would say this during closing arguments).
The witness also confirmed he could not see anyone in either of the cars and could not confirm if Coley was indeed one of the alleged shooters or how many people were in either car.
The witness added he was aware of the person, Humphrey, walking on the sidewalk towards him. He said he did not see her fall to the ground, but eventually noticed her on the ground.
When asked, the witness said that he at first told police he did not think his gun was relevant to the case and said he would not turn it over (but eventually did).
The witness also said, upon questioning, while he has not been charged with any crime related to this, he does face other charges in the city and feels he was only arrested on those charges to compel him to testify in this case. He added he had not been offered any sort of deal from prosecutors, but said someone may have tried to reach out to the prosecutors office on his behalf.
On redirect by the prosecution, the witness said the reason he did not want to give up his gun was in case he needed it. He denied being afraid, but admitted he was worried about his safety without a gun.
Groover also got the witness to admit that the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office has never offered him any deal related to his unrelated charges in exchange for his testimony.
Witness #8 - Owner of One of the Cars Used by Alleged Shooters
The eighth witness overall was a former girlfriend of Rarmil Pettiford, another of the accused. She said she owned a light/gray-colored BMW with a vanity license plate. This was the car that Pettiford was pulled over in a day after the shooting.
She told prosecutors on Sept. 12 she had given Pettiford permission to use the car (he had mentioned using it to go to work or getting it cleaned), but she never saw him leave with it. She added she gave no one else permission to drive the car.
On cross examination, the woman said she had woken up that day around 6:30 a.m. and left with family for most of the day (it was dark when she got home). She said when she got home she did not notice if the car was there, but Pettiford was not. She added she did not see either of the two co-defendants, Coley or Henderson that day.
Witness #9 - RPD Officer
The next witness was the RPD officer who accessed the security camera footage around Gilpin Court on the night of the shooting. He discussed the issues with downloading the video and said he just recorded the one video on his phone to get it to investigators in real time. That video would not be saved in the normal method by investigators before it was erased from the system.
The officer also said he took part in a traffic stop in Sept. 15 on a dark-colored Hyundai and Henderson was found inside the front passenger seat and added a phone was recovered from the car, but did not remember where it was recovered from.
On cross examination by Mutnick, the officer said he never intended for his cellphone recording of the video and was asked about the quality of his phone's recording, which he said is the same quality as what he watched that night.
He admitted that you only see muzzle flashes in the video, which came from a camera about two blocks from where the shooting happened, coming from the area of the black Jeep, as it is further away. But, he said you could not see any muzzle flashes coming from the other two cars and the camera could only see the driver sides of each.
He was also asked about the original video skipping or glitching at times when the cars appeared to stop in the intersection. The officer said the time skip was only about a millisecond.
Witness #10 - Henrico Police Sergeant
The next witness was a Henrico Police sergeant who is a part of the department's gang investigation lead.
He said he took part in a traffic stop near Richmond International Raceway on September 22. He said there were five people who were in the car and they had just come from St. Luke Apartment complex (previously known as the Essex Village Apartments) about a mile away. He added that two of the passengers were among the five accused: Coley and Mitchell Hudson. He said he had known both men prior to the traffic stop.
He said cellphones were seized during the traffic stop and two of them belonged to Hudson and Coley and they were sent to RPD as part of their investigation into this shooting.
On cross examination, the sergeant said the phones were not seized from each person, but were taken from a bag of phones in the car.
Witness #11 - Bowling Alley General Manager
Next on the witness stand was the general manager of a Midlothian bowling alley where prosecutors said some of the suspects went after the shooting and were seen on video. The GM testified that while she had not seen the video personally, knew from her experience with the system that it was good quality.
She added that the time stamp on the video was off by an hour because it had not been changed for Daylight Saving Time.
On cross examination by Mutnick, the GM said she did not recall being asked about the time stamp discrepancy at the time police requested the video and only asked about it this week.
Witness # 12 - Henrico Police Officer
The 12th witness overall called was another Henrico Police Officer involved in the gang unit who was involved in a Sept. 22 traffic stop less than a mile the St. Luke Apartment complex (this happened about an hour before the traffic stop involving Hudson and Coley).
The officer said inside the car was Rashard Jackson, another of the accused, and his mother. He said a cellphone was seized from Jackson. The officer said it was on the floor of the car near Jackon's leg and the officer believed it was Jackon's because he had a photo of himself as the background.
Once he finished at that scene, the officer said he want to the other traffic stop underway near RIR and interviewed some of the people involved in that stop including Coley and Hudson.
The officer then went on to describe his work as a member of the gang unit and how they work to identify gang members and the criteria needed to be met in order to classify someone as being in a gang (such as self-admission, confirmation from an informant, throwing hand signs, frequenting known gang areas, wearing similar clothing, and committing crimes or getting arrested with other gang members).
He spoke about a gang called the "30 Boyz" who started as a rap group in late 2019 and was designated as a street gang in 2021. He said Coley, Jackson, and Hudson are known members.
He said Henderson was considered a member of another gang linked to "30 Boyz", but the gangs split when a "30 Boyz" member was murdered and a member of the other gang was considered a suspect. He said after that, Henderson appeared to have left that gang and become associated with "30 Boyz".
He said Pettiford, the fifth person charged is related to Coley, but did not say if he was considered a member or associate of the gang.
The detective added St. Luke Apartment is considered to be a common "30 Boyz" hangout because a unit is leased by one of the member's girlfriends.
He is then shown a video from the apartment complex on Sept. 12 (the day of the murder) at around 6:32 p.m. He said he saw Hudson, Coley, and Henderson get into and out of a dark colored sedan before it leaves the complex at 6:43 p.m.
He is then shown video from the bowling alley from later that same night and he identified Henderson, Jackson, and Coley as being present.
When asked about his expertise and what happened on Sept. 12, if the other shooter only had issues with Coley -- the officer said if one member has a conflict, the whole gang would get involved as they use violence and intimidation to gain respect and instill fear.
On cross examination by Mutnick, the officer confirmed he was not present at St Luke and was just going off of what he saw in the video. He added that he had not seen what happened beyond that video and was just making assumptions after that.
He also confirmed that he knew who the RPD investigators were looking for and that they just wanted him to confirm it (but added he knew who the people were in the video from prior interactions with them).
Mutnick then asked about Henderson's ties to the gangs and clarified he is not listed as a member of "30 Boyz" and the officer said he did not want the court to assume he was. The officer confirmed that RPD considered him a member of the other gang that had split from "30 Boyz".
Mutnick added the "30 Boyz" member who was murdered was a close friend of Henderson.
Mutnick then asked how long it would take to drive from St. Luke Apartments to Gilpin Court and the officer said about ten minutes.
On Sheldon's cross examination, the officer admitted while he identified who got in the black car in the video at the apartment complex, he did not know who was in it at the time of the shooting.
Witness #13 - RPD Detective
The 13th-overall witness was an RPD detective who was with the city's gang unit at the time and worked on surveillance involving the "30 Boyz" and the other gang they split from.
He mentioned he has known Henderson since 2016 and while he was associated with the other gang, he began associating with "30 Boyz" in spring 2022 following the murder of one of its members.
On cross examination from Mutnick, he confirmed RPD did not consider Henderson a "30 Boyz" member but had seen him hanging out with members of social media.
When asked if switching gang allegiances was common, the detective said it was not a usual occurrence and there would likely have been some sort of an internal issue that led to the split.
On redirect from prosecutors, the detective said that even associates of gangs can take part in criminal activities on behalf of the gang in order to increase their standing.
Witness #14 - Forensic Investigator
The next person on the stand was the forensic investigator who responded to the scene of the homicide.
She said she focused on collecting cartridge casings at the intersection of N. First St and E. Charity St. and cartridge casings and other evidence near where Humprhey's body was.
She said three calibers of casings were recovered from the intersection: seven casings of .357mm, seven casings of .223mm, and 14 casings of 9mm.
She said upon lab testing, all of the casings from the .223 all appeared to be fired from the same rifle and all from the .357 appeared to be fired from the same glock. She said the .9mm appeared to come from a glock.
At the location near Humphrey, she said there was casings, blood, and a bullet that was collected.
She said the bullet was a .38 bullet and could be used by a .357mm gun or a 9mm, but said, when asked, that a .40-caliber gun (like the one used by the other shooter who was near Humphrey) could not.
She said all the casings near Humphrey were .40-caliber casings and came from the same gun. She added the other shooter's .40-caliber gun was matched to those casings in a test.
The investigator added she recovered another bullet from the other shooter's Jeep that had lodged into the back hatch area. She said it was a .38 bullet, the same kind found next to the victim.
The investigator said she also processed the two suspect vehicles and conducted DNA swabs on all the interior doors, plus gear shifts and steering wheels.
She said in the BMW, she also recovered a 9mm magazine and .223mm cartridges and a magazine (the cartridges were originally in the magazine when seized, but removed for testing). They also recovered a ski mask from the car.
She added the .223mm rounds found in the car had different head stamps (or unique markings made when fired) then the ones found at the scene, but were of the same caliber.
As for the Hyundai, she said they also recovered a gun box of a .9mm Glock and medical paper work for Henderson.
On cross examination by Sheldon, he asked if she was aware if any emergency vehicles had driven through the scene before her arrival -- to which she was not sure. She also admitted she did not get to test everything she wanted to as there is a limit on how many items they can send for testing and focused on the areas most likely to have DNA.
She added she did not test the cars for gunshot residue or primer.
With Mutnick, he also asked about potential disturbances to the crime scene by cars driving over the cases and how far a casing might go after being ejected from a gun. The investigator said it could likely travel about 10 feet, but then could bounce. She added there have been studies that have shown that driving over bullet casings does not have a large impact on their positioning.
On redirect, the investigator said she also sent back samples of DNA for the five suspects. She added she did not test for gunshot residue because the state lab does not test for it and the test is not 100% accurate and discussed issues with why the residue may not settle on a surface.
Witness # 15 - Forensic Scientist
The penultimate witness for the day was a forensic scientist from the state lab who conducted tests on the DNA samples taken from the scene and suspect cars and attempted to compare them with the DNA samples of the five suspects and victim.
For example, she said for the blood from the sidewalk they could eliminate Tynashia Humphrey as a contributor to the DNA profile and the chances of it being her blood was greater than 1-in-7.2-billion.
The scientist said they do not say if someone is a match to a DNA sample, but whether or not they can be eliminated. They then say the ratio, like in Humphrey's case, demonstrates the chances of picking another person at random and having that person also match the DNA sample. 7.2-billion is roughly the population of earth.
The scientist said no blood was found on the BMW door handles and the mixture of various people's DNA on the handles was so complex that she could do develop a DNA profile to compare with the suspects' DNA.
She also could not develop a profile on the two magazines or cartridges.
As for the Hyundai, she was able to develop DNA profiles from the left and right rear passenger doors.
For the right door, the scientist said Hudson could not be ruled out as a major contributor.
On the left door, all five suspects and Humphrey were ruled out as being major contributors.
For the remaining items tested, the scientist said she could not develop a DNA profile to compare.
On cross examination, Mutnick confirmed that for the items that could be compared -- Henderson was eliminated as a contributor from all of them.
Sheldon got the same answer for his client, Coley.
On redirect, the prosecution clarified that Hudon could not be eliminated as a contributor from one item.
Witness #16 - RPD Detective
The final witness of the day was the lead detective of the investigation, who said he arrived on scene within 30 minutes of getting the call.
He then listed five phone numbers they associated with each of the suspects and said they petitioned for search warrants for their cellphone data to determine their locations.
He said investigators also determined six key areas of importance other than the crime scene: Jackson's home, Pettiford's home, Pettiford's father's home, St. Luke Apartments, a BP gas station, and the bowling alley.
He was also shown the video from St. Luke's taken about an hour before the murder and identified Hudson, Henderson, and Coley getting in the car.
The detective said the gas station was developed as a place of importance based off the phone records and said several of the suspects were placed there after leaving the apartment complex and prior to going to Gilpin.
He then discussed watching surveillance video from the gas station that he said showed a black car and a silver-bluish car in the parking lot. He said no one got out of the car, but they drove around for a bit, including going into a blind spot from the camera and then left. He said the cars looked like the target vehicles they were looking for.
The detective added investigators failed to save this video as the night he went to go view it, he did not have a zip drive to save it on. He said another detective could not get back there the next day, so he (the lead investigator) went back the day after that and downloaded it onto a zip drive. But, he said he did not check the file immediately and when he did, several days later, he realized the file was empty. He said by the time he went back to the gas station, it had been auto-deleted from the system after 14 days had passed.
The investigator then watched the video from the bowling alley, which was from around 8:30 p.m. on the night of Sept. 12 and he said he saw Henderson, Coley, Hudson, and Jackson in the video and that Jackson appeared to be talking on a cellphone.
On cross examination by Mutnick, he asked about the apartment parking lot video and he saw any better quality version than what was played in court and the investigator said no. Mutnick then asked if he had ever seen the men prior to the event, he said no. Mutnick asked if he was basing his identification of the men off of the one time charging them with the crime and watching the video and he said yes.
Sheldon asked how the investigators linked one of the phones recovered in the traffic stop to Coley when four phones were found in one bag. The investigator said it was by process of elimination.
Day Three Expectations
The final day of the trial is expected to be Friday, when prosecutors are expected to call an FBI Special Agent to testify to the cellphone data.
Prosecutors said there is another witness who was supposed to be in court to testify on day one but never showed and a capias had been issued for their arrest and they were being sought by a fugitive task force. The judge said they would wait to see if the witness is found before day three and if not, would proceed from there.
The defense has said they do not intend to call any witnesses.
Court will resume at 9 a.m.
