CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – At the close of a four-day trial, Rasheem Lewis and Timothy Ogburn were found not guilty of premeditated first-degree murder in the 2018 death of 21-year-old Julian Torres.
It took the jury a little under five hours Thursday afternoon to return with the verdict for both of the accused.
Jury’s considerations
The morning started with debate about what should be included in the jury’s instructions, or the guidelines used by jurors during deliberations.
Despite being the state’s key witness to Torres’ death, it was up for the jury to consider whether Jamonte Pinkston was an accomplice, as he was in the car with Lewis and Ogburn the night Torres was shot.
If the jury were to consider him an accomplice, his testimony would have needed corroborating testimony to have been enough for a conviction.
It remains unclear how the jury decided to consider Pinkston’s role in the shooting, and his testimony.
“In the evidence that we’ve heard, is there anything indicating that Jamonte Pinkston was an accomplice? He was with these individuals, he was apparently there with them a lot, he knew that Mr. Ogburn had a firearm,” prosecutor Chris Dotson said to Judge William R. Goodman III before the jury was brought in.
On the witness stand Wednesday, Pinkston testified that Ogburn killed Torres, but he has changed his story more than once about what he saw and heard the night of the shooting.
This includes some discrepancies on the type of gun.
On Wednesday, an expert in firearms analysis from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation testified that the 9 mm shell casings discovered at the scene could have come from a long gun. However, since the gun used was not recovered, the expert said the casings also could have come from a pistol.
Closing arguments
In closing arguments, the state leaned into the theory that there was premeditation in this case because Lewis, the driver of the car, turned off the headlights before coming to the intersection where Torres was shot.
He then held up a set of photos showing Ogburn holding a gun. On Wednesday, Pinkston identified the photo as Ogburn at the same location where he lived, which was near the scene of the shooting, and it was allegedly taken about 20 hours before the shooting on May 19.
“I’ve seen (Ogburn) shoot a gun; I don’t know if it’s that specific one,” Pinkston testified Wednesday.
“Can you find (Lewis and Ogburn) guilty based on the testimony of one person who was an accomplice?” Smith asked the jury Thursday. “It’s all manufactured. It’s not organic whatsoever.”
In a follow-up closing remark, Lewis’ attorney Gordon Rahn said Smith did a great job of expressing all of his concerns.
“This is a tragedy that shouldn’t have happened, but we don’t need to make it worse,” Rahn said before asking the jury to return with a verdict of not guilty.
Victim’s family heartbroken by testimony
While the jury was deliberating, much of Torres’ family waited in the hall.
Nadia Gold, who is Torres’ aunt, described the trial process as very hard.
“I knew he got shot, but I didn’t know the exact details. That was heartbreaking,” Gold told Clarksville Now.
Gold said she tries to keep the good memories of Torres alive. In addition to a tattoo on her left forearm for Torres of a dreamcatcher with “Juju” in the middle, her favorite memories are his bear hugs.
Two weeks before he was killed, Gold picked up Torres’ girlfriend, who was expecting a child with Torres, and surprised her with a shopping spree for baby supplies.
“When we came back to the house, he was helping her unload everything that I had bought, and she told him, ‘Look, your auntie bought this.’ And he came over, because he would always give me these big ol’ bear hugs, and he kissed me on the forehead and said, ‘Thank you auntie, you’re amazing,'” Gold said.
Torres’ family declined to comment following the announcement of the verdict.
Both Lewis and Ogburn have upcoming cases that are still working their way through the court system.
Lewis has a hearing on Sept. 10 for drug charges, and Ogburn is set for another murder trial in the coming months for the death of 36-year-old Tanesha Hardy, which happened just four days after the death of Torres.
Blaine Kellar contributed to this report.