Opinion ID: 1904893
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The State's Case on Direct Examination

Text: On direct examination by the prosecutor, Phillips testified that he was shot repeatedly by three men, including King, who he knew only as Dubbies at the time of the shooting. He did not know why King shot him. According to Phillips, he had pulled into the parking lot of his apartment complex, exited his car, and called his fiancée, Terri Lagarde, with his cell phone. While speaking with her, a black Ford Explorer, with its lights off, drove onto the parking lot and stopped. Of the five men in the vehicle, three exited and approached him. He recognized one of the on-coming men as Dubbies, a regular at the Crossroads nightclub, a haunt which Phillips also frequented. Dubbies kept his hands behind his back while announcing, I come in peace. Phillips, however, saw that Dubbies concealed a chrome .45 caliber handgun and, skeptical of Dubbies's proclaimed benign intent, tried to run away. At that point, Dubbies and the two other gunmen brandished handguns and opened fire on Phillips. Phillips overheard one of the shooters complain, he [Phillips] can't die. According to Phillips, there was no one else on the parking lot during the shooting. Phillips also explained that he had not recounted the foregoing narrative to a detective until March 2005, nearly eight months after the shooting. He did not remember the detective's name, only his face. Lagarde, Phillips's fiancée, also testified for the State, apparently in an effort to bolster Phillips's account of what happened on the night he was shot. According to her, she heard the gunshots while she was on the phone with Phillips. She heard Phillips say what, what and something about a black truck; then, his phone clicked off. Lagarde said she waited for a few minutes to see if he would call her back, but, when he did not, she went looking for him. Knowing the general vicinity where he was when he called her, Lagarde drove until she saw ambulance lights. As she approached, she saw paramedics treating Phillips. According to Lagarde, Phillips spoke to her, saying, ma, ma, they done shot me. For no reason, they just shot me. They just shot me for nothing. The paramedics took him to the hospital while Lagarde waited at the scene to speak with detectives. After she relayed to them what she heard before her phone call with Phillips ended, she gave them her cell phone number and drove to the hospital. Lagarde took Phillips home with her after his discharge from the hospital; however, they moved out of her apartment within eight hours of arriving there, choosing to relocate to Washington, D.C., out of fear for Phillips's safety. She did not provide the police with their new address. The State next called Detective Robert Holland, the officer in charge of investigating the shooting. He testified that he arrived at the crime scene shortly after emergency responders took Phillips to the hospital. Detective Holland explained that two complete bullets, two bullet fragments, and seven shell casings were found on the parking lot. All of the projectiles were fired from nine millimeter handguns. The State did not introduce any additional forensic evidence. According to Detective Holland, he met with Lagarde on the same night as the shooting. He spoke with Phillips the following evening at approximately 10:00 p.m. At that time, Phillips could not provide much insight into the circumstances of the shooting, Detective Holland asserted, because Phillips was still undergoing medical treatment; however, he was alert and coherent enough to identify Dubbies as an assailant. The nickname eventually led the detective to consider King as a suspect. He prepared a photo array for Phillips's review, which included a photograph of King obtained from the Motor Vehicle Administration, to determine whether King was the Dubbies to whom Phillips referred. Detective Holland described, through the following colloquy, his efforts to set up a meeting with Phillips in the months following Phillips's discharge from the hospital: Q ... And once you got the photograph and you prepared a photo array what, if anything, did you do? A I made attempts to contact Mr. Phillips. Q And were you able to contact him? A I was. After a few times, we finally had a meeting in March. Q And when you say you were trying to contact him, when you say that, what exactly were you doing? A At that point I had a cell phone number for him. I was trying to contact his cell phone which was the only point of contact I had for him. I left a couple of messages. I tried to call Terri, left a few messages with her, and we were back and forth leaving messages for one another for several weeks in-between. After Detective Holland testified, the State rested.