CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – The jury trial for two brothers charged with the 2020 drive-by murder of a 19-year-old began Monday afternoon.
On Feb. 22, 2020, at around 9:45 p.m., police responded to a shots fired call at the 200 block of Cranklen Circle near the Clarksville Regional Airport. Responders arrived to find Malik Madison, 19, gravely injured. He was rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and six days later, on Feb. 28, Madison died from his injuries.
During the investigation, police arrested two suspects, KyJuan Fuller, 16 at the time, and Jakarius Medley, then 18, who are half-brothers.
Counterfeit cash and edibles
On Monday, Fuller, 20, and Medley, 22, sat at the defense table as the state presented their argument. Deputy District Attorney Michael Pugh explained to the jury that the charges resulted from a deal over edibles gone wrong.
Fuller and Medley sold some edibles and a vape cartridge to a then-17-year-old, J.D., Pugh said. (Clarksville Now is withholding his full name as he was a juvenile at the time.) After leaving the apartment, Medley began to suspect that the cash they received was counterfeit. When they failed to get real cash from J.D., Pugh said, the brothers left “visibly angry.”
A few hours later, on Feb. 22, Pugh said, Fuller and Medley found out J.D. was near Jack Miller Boulevard with Malik Madison.
After driving around the area, they stopped at a house where Medley had been before. Pugh said the brothers saw someone in the window, and Medley said, “There they are.”
Then, 11 rounds from a .22 pistol were fired through the window of the house, striking Madison in the head.
‘How many lives need to be destroyed?’
Stephanie Ritchie Mize, Medley’s attorney, told the jury they would hear testimony from several other teenagers who were involved that night. Two individuals were with Fuller and Medley the entire night, and Ritchie Mize believes those two got together that night to get their stories straight.
She told the jury that the catalyst behind the crime, J.D., wouldn’t even be testifying. “Is he (J.D.) going to come up here and say, ‘Oh, they attempted to murder me?’ No,” Ritchie Mize said. “He’s gone. And that’s because (J.D.) started this chaos.”
She told the jury they had to decide how much punishment was enough. “How many lives need to be destroyed to make Malik Madison’s death meaningful?”
Boy with disabilities
Fuller’s defense attorney, Timothy Warren, appealed to the jury that his client, only 16 at the time, was the youngest of everyone involved in the case.
Going through school, Warren said, his client had several learning disabilities. “KyJuan (Fuller) was immature,” Warren told the jury. “Just a boy. By every other legal standard, KyJuan is a child. He can’t vote, can’t buy alcohol, can’t buy tobacco; by every other legal standard, KyJuan is just a boy.”
Warren told the jury that those who had kids know how it is to deal with them. He said they look up to everybody while trying to fit in and want to do what they think is best.
“This is about accountability,” Warren said. “KyJuan was too young to conspire, 16 years old with learning disabilities.”
The trial is set to resume Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. at the Montgomery County Courts Center.
Update: The person identified as J.D. was a juvenile at the time of the incident and has not been charged, so Clarksville Now has removed his full name from the article.
Correction: The cartridges and edibles sold occurred on the same day as the shooting. This article has been updated.
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