CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – A man who was charged with three counts of attempted first-degree murder has been found not guilty by a Montgomery County jury. After less than an hour of deliberation, the jury found Richard “Kenny” Woodson, 38, not guilty of all charges on Monday.
On the night of Nov. 14, 2020, police responded to a shots fired call on Roselawn Drive. According to documents obtained by Clarksville Now, the victims were standing on the porch of the home when a white Chevrolet Impala drove past several times. The victims claimed they saw Woodson in the passenger seat of the car before he fired shots. Luckily, there were no injuries.
Reasonable doubt, missing evidence
Former CPD Officer Rosa Hyatt was the responding officer on the night of the shooting and had asked a witness at the scene to send her video of the incident. It is unknown if the video was ever sent. Later in the year, Hyatt took maternity leave, and when she returned to duty, she had forgotten the password to her work phone. Technicians had to factory reset the phone, causing Hyatt to lose all of the information on it, and potential evidence.
“Even if Rosa didn’t bother to send that video to her work phone, she literally was holding evidence in her hands, and she lost it,” Woodson’s attorney, Jake Fendley, told the jury during closing arguments. “She lost exculpatory evidence.
“How can your government possibly put a man on trial when they are so ignorant to the actual facts?” Fendley said. “I’d call it a joke if Kenny hadn’t been sitting in jail for three years waiting on trial that the government never even bothered to look at all the evidence.”
Sigh of relief
When the last verdict was read, Woodson could be seen breathing a sigh of relief as he leaned back in his chair, his attorney grinning with pride.
Woodson had been charged with three counts of attempted first-degree murder, three counts of possessing a firearm with intent to go armed, five counts of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment by discharging a firearm into an occupied habitat and two counts of felon in possession of firearm. In total, he was facing 12 separate charges.
“I am honored and humbled to have had the chance to defend Kenny,” Fendley told Clarksville Now. “We’re all glad the jury did the right thing and thrilled that Kenny got to go home last night after nearly three years in jail waiting for his day in court.”
Prosecutors from the District Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
2 acquittals in 1 year
This is the second time in a year that Woodson has been found not guilty by a jury in a shooting trial.
On Nov. 15, 2019, a year before the drive-by shooting, intruders broke into a home on Dandelion Drive, and one of the intruders killed the homeowner. Woodson was one of three suspects who was charged with murder, but he was found not guilty by a jury in January.
PREVIOUSLY: Drive-by shooting trial: 4 takeaways, including love letters and missing video
Correction: This article has been updated with a corrected date of the home invasion.