CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Day two of the trial for Jevon Brodie and Tavares Harbison, both charged when they were young teens with murdering a 71-year-old attendant at a Clarksville laundromat in 2018, got underway Tuesday.
The trial for the two of three suspects began Monday. On Tuesday, the state began to make its case and called 15 witnesses. Here are five key takeaways from their testimonies.
1. Video footage: state’s most important evidence
District Attorney General Robert Nash called four witnesses to identify the three suspects seen attacking Cook on the surveillance footage: Officer Heather Hill, Officer Jonathan Williams and Detective Justin Bailey, all with Clarksville Police, and Henry Hopson, a custodian at Kenwood Middle School who identified Harbison and Smith.
The footage also revealed who played what role in the attack. Bailey identified Brodie as the suspect seen striking the attendant, Ted Cook, with an assault-style BB gun rifle.
Meanwhile, Harbison and Smith were trying to get into a game machine.
“It appears they’re just shaking it all around trying to get the change,” Bailey said. They made off with $34.15.
Bailey testified that Harbison could be seen going through Cook’s pockets while he was lying on the ground.
2. Cook managed to call 911 after attack
After he was attacked, Cook called 911 and was able to give the dispatcher descriptions of the suspects. The state played the phone call audio in court.
“They kicked me, they stomped me and done everything else. So I need some help please,” Cook said to the dispatcher.
After the audio played, Brodie’s defense attorney Vicki Carikker called it “the perfect call” during a cross examination, as Cook was able to give the 911 dispatcher several details he might not have been able to were he more incapacitated.
3. Cook had heart problems long before attack
The first testimony Tuesday morning was that of Cook’s widow Stella. The pair were married for 28 years, and she said Cook had two open heart surgeries in the 1990s. He had a mechanical heart valve, and, as a result, was on blood thinners at the time of his death.
Dr. Darrell Hunt, who was Cook’s intensive care doctor at Tristar Skyline Medical Center in Nashville, testified that Cook’s mechanical heart valve and blood thinners created an issue when the attack caused major bleeding on his brain. The blood thinner made the bleeding worse on his brain, so a craniotomy was required to alleviate it.
However, when Cook’s care team stopped the blood thinners, his heart began throwing clots. This led to Cook suffering multiple strokes.
“I told them (Cook’s family) we were in a no-win situation that would lead to Mr. Cook’s death,” Hunt said.
“We couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t waking up, and they said he was having multiple seizures, one right after another. We had to make the decision to unplug him,” Stella emotionally testified.
Cook died June 9, 2018, 10 days after the attack.
4. Cook died of ‘complications of multiple blunt force injuries’
Dr. Feng Li, chief medical examiner for Metro Nashville Davidson County, also testified Tuesday. He conducted Cook’s autopsy on June 10, 2018. He testified that Cook had bleeding along with multiple blunt force injuries.
He testified that Cook’s cause of death was complications from those injuries.
During her re-cross examination, Harbison’s defense attorney Shelby Silvey asked Li about the after-effects of Cook’s craniotomy, and how much it affected his brain bleeding.
“This patient suffered all manners of bleeding, from the skin, below the bone, below the dura. Basically everywhere,” Li testified, adding that there was even blood directly on his brain.
Li also said he determined Cook’s manner of death to be homicide.
5. Brodie’s DNA found on BB gun
The last witness to testify Tuesday was Agent Gregg Fort with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s crime lab. Fort said he swabbed the gun for latent prints and potential DNA.
He was able to confirm that DNA was present on the BB rifle, and said he concluded the major contributor to that DNA was Brodie.
Testimony resumes Wednesday morning.