CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Witnesses from this week’s trial for an alleged gang member, Shaquille “Hazard” Miles consisted of eyewitnesses with poor eyesight, an expert witness gang investigator, and several inmates. Miles is charged with criminal homicide for the 2014 murder of Fran “Frankie” Daniel Caratini.
On the night of Aug. 14, 2014, police responded to multiple shots fired on Chapel Street in Clarksville. When they arrived on the scene, they found Caratini, 24, deceased. He had sustained multiple gunshot wounds.
The case went cold for years, and all leads seeming dried up, until Oct. 23, 2020, when an arrest was made.
Killed over $325 defective gun
“Disrespect is deadly,” Assistant District Attorney Marianne Bell told the jury during opening arguments. “We are here today because a young man named Frankie Caratini dared to disrespect the defendant, Shaquille Miles, in front of his friends. And the defendant killed him for it.”
The state argued that Caratini had sold Miles a defective gun, knowing that the gun wouldn’t work. After the $325 gun transaction was completed, Miles asked for his money back, according to court records.
Friends of Caratini told him to just give the money back. One even offered to give him the money to give back to Miles, but Caratini refused.
On the night of Aug. 14, 2014, Caratini was attending a party when the defendant confronted him. After a loud argument, the state says, Miles shot Caratini, who was unarmed.
Rumor mill and lost evidence
“It’s been a weird case,” Defense Attorney Jake Fendley told the jury. “When I got it and started examining it, I tried to figure out why Mr. Miles is even being charged for this crime. So, in order to understand this case, we have to think back to the telephone game.”
Fendley argued that since Caratini was killed in 2014, and his client was arrested for this crime in 2020, it had allowed for over six years of gossiping and “rumors flying.”
“Several people have been accused of being involved in this,” Fendley said. “Mr. Miles just happened to be the one Detective (Keenan) Carlton honed in on.”
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Fendley went on to say that the state had no physical evidence, only that his client had joined a gang.
“I’m going to say this as delicately as I can. This investigation is just sloppy,” Fendley said. “You’re going to hear that they (CPD) lost a pill bottle, that was in Mr. Caratini’s pockets when he passed away. … Until a few weeks ago, there was a photo lineup where somebody identified an alternate suspect, and that was lost. They found it since then, but that was lost at some point.”
Fendley also alleged that when Caratini’s hands were “bagged” on the scene to test for DNA, the tests weren’t run. He went on to argue that it was questionable that all of these witnesses suddenly began coming forward to testify, and that since Carlton was handed a hard case, he began listening to the gossip and taking part in spreading the rumors.
“Why don’t teachers give answers to tests? Because they want to know what their students have learned. Why shouldn’t detectives tell potential witnesses what other people are saying? Because they should want to see what the witness actually knows.”
The shooting
LaTonya Smith tearfully recalled to the jury the night of Aug. 14, 2014. She was sitting on the porch of her old apartment on Chapel Street with her now ex-husband, Michael Miner, and sister. People were gathering at a nearby neighbor’s home for a birthday party when Smith saw a car pull up. A man got out and began walking toward the party: Frankie Caratini.
Smith didn’t know Caratini, or even his name, until she heard someone call out from the lowly lit parking lot, “Frankie!” When he turned the first time to face the person calling his name, he didn’t say anything and continued walking, speaking to someone else. The person called out again, “Frankie!” Smith recalled. This time, Frankie turned around, looked at the person, and said, “I don’t have time for this.”
“OK, OK,” Smith recalled the person saying before watching the individual turn back around, walk to a car, reach in and grab something.
“Frankie!” Smith recalled the person shouting Frankie’s name one more time, and Caratini turned. She saw a blast from the muzzle of a gun, and loud shots ringing out through the neighborhood. Smith watched as Caratini was hit, and he scrambled to get away, the person still shooting. Caratini disappeared behind the side of the apartments and collapsed.
He was later found by law enforcement with an unsurvivable bullet wound to his chest.
LaTonya ushered her sister inside, her ex-husband calling 911 to get an ambulance on the way. But the perpetrator stood there for a while before turning to look at Smith. Another unknown individual ran up to the shooter and began exclaiming, “We’ve gotta go, we’ve gotta go now! Don’t worry about her, that b**** blind as a bat, she can’t see nothing!”
Smith, who wears glasses, struggled to make out the person’s face, skin tone, and even gender of the attacker during testimony.
“Without my glasses, I can’t see. I mean, I can see, but if I don’t see you every day, I really can’t see.”
The prosecution presented evidence that Miles is a member of the 52 Hoover Gangster Crips, many of which, according to Agent Joshua Smith, reside in Clarksville and frequent the Chapel Street area.
Trial is set to resume Wednesday morning at 8:30 a.m.