ESPN produced a short documentary on Zaevion Dobson, who was killed protecting his friends from gunfire. Courtesy of ESPN Films
It is now up to a Knox County jury to decide the fate of three young men accused of arming themselves with guns, casually walking along a neighborhood street and opening fire on a group of innocent teenagers, leaving a 15-year-old boy dead.
Jurors in Knox County Criminal Court have spent eight days hearing a slew of witnesses, seeing a cache of shell casings, viewing a half dozen crime scenes and even watching gangsta rap videos in the hunt for the truth behind this question: Who is responsible for the December 2015 shooting death of Fulton High School football player Zaevion Dobson?
Judge Steve Sword sent the jury home late Wednesday night. They will begin deliberations Thursday.
'Each person has a role'
Prosecutors TaKisha Fitzgerald and Phil Morton told jurors Wednesday in closing arguments that all three young men charged in Dobson's death — Christopher Drone Bassett, 22, Richard Gregory Williams III, 23, and Kipling Colbert Jr., 22 — are responsible even though another young man, Brandon Perry, set the events of that fateful night in motion.
“That’s what criminal responsibility is all about,” Morton told jurors. “Each person has a role.”
![Zenobia Dobson, left, talks to her son Zach during]()
1 of 43![Defense expert witness Eric Neilson is questioned by]()
2 of 43![Defense attorney T. Scott Jones questions expert witness]()
3 of 43![Knox County Criminal Court Judge Steven Sword during]()
4 of 43![Knox County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan]()
5 of 43![Patricia Resig, firearm examiner for the Knoxville]()
6 of 43![Knox County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan]()
7 of 43![Patricia Resig, firearms examiner for the Knoxville]()
8 of 43![Patricia Resig, firearms examiner for the Knoxville]()
9 of 43![Patricia Resig, firearms examiner for the Knoxville]()
10 of 43![Patricia Resig, firearms examiner for the Knoxville]()
11 of 43![Patricia Resig, firearms examiner for the Knoxville]()
12 of 43![KPD Officer Andrew Markham displays to the jury a gun,]()
13 of 43![Christopher Bassett, left, Kipling Colbert Jr., second]()
14 of 43![Knox County Sheriff's Office gang expert Tom Walker]()
15 of 43![Knox County Assistant District Attorney TaKisha Fitzgerald]()
16 of 43![T. Scott Jones, defense attorney for Christopher Bassett,]()
17 of 43![KPD Officer Andrew Markham, left, marks on an exhibit]()
18 of 43![Zenobia Dobson wipes away tears as she recalls the]()
19 of 43![Zenobia Dobson recalls the night she learned her son]()
20 of 43![Zenobia Dobson on the stand giving her testimony during]()
21 of 43![KPD evidence technician Bethany Fine shows the jury]()
22 of 43![KPD evidence technician Bethany Fine shows the jury]()
23 of 43![KPD evidence technician Bethany Fine, right, is questioned]()
24 of 43![Natasha Colbert, who lived at the apartment where Zaevion]()
25 of 43![KPD evidence technician Bethany Fine shows the jury]()
26 of 43![KPD evidence technician Bethany Fine, right, points]()
27 of 43![KPD evidence technician Bethany Fine, center, matches]()
28 of 43![KPD Officer Jimmy Wilson describes what is happening]()
29 of 43![Christopher Bassett, left, Kipling Colbert Jr., second]()
30 of 43![Zenobia Dobson, right, listens during her son Zaevion]()
31 of 43![KPD Lt. Robert Taylor points out a street on a map]()
32 of 43![Knoxville Police Department crime scene technician]()
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36 of 43![Christopher Bassett during the Zaevion Dobson slaying]()
37 of 43![Kipling Colbert Jr., back right, listens as opening]()
38 of 43![Defense attorney Kit Rodgers, left, and Richard Gregory]()
39 of 43![Defense attorney T. Scott Jones makes his opening statement]()
40 of 43![Defense attorney Kit Rodgers, left, and Richard Gregory]()
41 of 43![Defense attorney Kit Rodgers makes his opening statement]()
42 of 43![Prosecutor Phil Morton makes his opening statement]()
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The trio face charges including first-degree murder in Dobson’s death and attempted murder in the endangerment of his brother and friends who were with him.
Testimony has shown that Perry, angry at the uncle of his girlfriend’s child, touched off a violent series of events on Dec. 17, 2015, when he sprayed the Western Heights community with bullets after the uncle called his girlfriend a profane name.
Two hours later, someone shot up Perry’s mother’s home on Dallas Street. His mother was wounded, and, according to testimony, Perry wanted revenge. Bassett conceded in an interrogation by Knoxville Police Department Investigator A.J. Loeffler that Perry, his cousin, rounded up a posse of young men, including Bassett, and headed to Lonsdale with plans to shoot someone. It’s still not clear whom Perry was targeting. Bassett admitted he didn’t even know.
Reporter Jamie Satterfield gives a midday update on the Zaevion Dobson murder trial Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017. Christopher Drone Bassett, 22, Richard Gregory Williams III, 23, and Kipling Colbert Jr., 22, face charges that include first-degree murder. Jamie Satterfield/News Sentinel
As many as eight young men were seen by witnesses walking along Badgett Drive in Lonsdale. Meanwhile, Dobson, his brother and a half dozen teenage friends were gathered outside a home on Badgett Drive, celebrating the end of the fall semester. With no warning, testimony showed, the group of young men opened fire. At least 34 rounds were fired from at least four different guns.
Dobson was struck by a single bullet as, testimony has shown, he tried to shield two teenage girls. The bullet traveled into his aorta, and he died within seconds. Two hours later, Perry was fatally shot as he drove Bassett’s car into the parking lot of an apartment complex in East Knoxville.
'Look at the evidence'
Police have been unable to mount a case against anyone other than Bassett, Williams and Colbert. Bassett put himself at the fatal shooting scene in his statement to Loeffler. Police found the gun that killed Dobson under the seat of a car in which Williams was traveling a few weeks after Dobson’s death, and Colbert was identified by a witness in Lonsdale.
Fitzgerald and Morton contend Perry, Bassett, Williams and Colbert aligned themselves with a sect of the Bloods street gang and decided to “shoot up” Lonsdale – turf of rival gang sects of the Crips – in retaliation for the shooting of Perry’s mother.
“Gangbangers, wannabe gangbangers, whatever you want to call them … it’s all of them,” Morton said of their responsibility.
But attorneys T Scott Jones, Kit Rodgers and Rhonda Lee – who represent Bassett, Williams and Colbert respectively – contend the shooting had nothing to do with gangs. Each attorney attacked the evidence of their clients’ guilt as wholly inadequate to brand them killers.
“This is a very convoluted case,” Rodgers said. “What I’m asking you to do is look at the actual evidence … Not a single witness … says Mr. Williams was in Lonsdale on Dec. 17, 2015. That’s what this case is about – what happened in Lonsdale. They found (the gun) in someone else’s car under the passenger seat. We don’t know whose car that is, who rides in that car.”
Lee questioned the credibility of the teenage witness who said he saw Colbert among the young men who walked onto Badgett Drive and told jurors that prosecutors used a video of the three lip-syncing to a gangsta rap song to try to shore up their case.
“That’s the only proof against Kipling Colbert,” she said. “Mr. Colbert was trying to be a rapper.”
Jones said there was no proof Bassett was in a gang and he was in jail when police found the gun used to kill Dobson.
“Best alibi ever – we’re in the jailhouse,” he said.
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Bassett admitted in the interrogation that he fired into the air, but Jones said that admission does not make him guilty of first-degree murder.
Fitzgerald countered Bassett had plenty of time to think about his actions as did the other two suspects as they strolled into Lonsdale.
“They’re walking, and they’re thinking, and they’ve got their guns,” she said. “With every step, they are thinking.”