CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – A man is on trial this week on charges that he fired multiple shots into a house and cars during a drive-by shooting.
Richard “Kenny” Woodson, 38, is 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.
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 at the victims. Luckily, there were no injuries.
According to the arrest warrant, police found bullet holes and strikes on the home, including the living room window where the victims and multiple other witnesses had been standing at the time. The vehicles that were parked in the driveway were also struck by gunfire.
The grand jury indictment states that Woodson wasn’t alone and was accompanied Deshaya Bryanna Marie Allen when they began the drive-by shooting.
‘You don’t bring a knife to a gunfight’
Assistant District Attorney Kayla McBride started opening arguments with a decisive statement: “You don’t bring a knife to a gunfight, but back in November of 2020, Richard Kenny Woodson went a step further. He decided to bring a gun to a fistfight.”
One of the victims of the drive-by shooting, Unique Hall, and the arrested suspect Deshaya Allen, were former best friends. At the time, Hall and Allen were having an ongoing dispute. Many threats and efforts to meet were made, but McBride said that it just never worked out.
McBride urged the jury to listen to the testimony and evidence and encouraged them to especially pay attention to the testimony of Allen.
“It could be love, it could be ego. But what we do know is Kenny Woodson started shooting.”
‘She tried to use Kenny as a shield, a weapon’
Woodson’s defense attorney, Jake Fendley, argued that his client, although married, began an extramarital affair with Allen, but that “love” had nothing to do with it. “The idea that Kenny Woodson would shoot up a house full of women and children over his side chick is pretty ridiculous.”
Fendley went on to say that the threats that Allen had made against Hall during their ongoing feud were “disgusting” and “abhorrent.”
“The worst thing she did (Allen) was that she threatened to kill Eunique Hall’s baby. Now that’s disgusting. That is absolutely abhorrent,” Fendley told the jury. “Kenny Woodson wouldn’t have stood for that for one second. He has children himself. What kind of person would threaten to kill a baby?”
Fendley argued that the lighting on the street was poor, that Allen allegedly had a deal with the state in return for her testimony against his client, and that multiple pieces of evidence were lost or never obtained.
The trial continues Wednesday morning.
Murder trial this year
Earlier this year, in a separate incident, Woodson was found not guilty of murder in a jury trial.
On Nov. 15, 2019, a year after 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 Woodson was found not guilty by a jury in January this year.
Correction: Unique Hall’s first name was misspelled in an earlier version of this report. The date of the home invasion has also been corrected.