-
Jamaul Herman looks behind him into the audience as his attorney gives a closing argument during his trial for the alleged shooting death of Jerome Timmons on July 4, 2010, while in Judge Rebecca Stern's courtroom late Tuesday morning.Photo by Jake Daniels.
The fiancee of a man on trial for murder testified Friday that in the hours before the shooting the defendant did not have a weapon.
Arlinda Moorer said she met with Jamaul Herman, her fiancee, at The Palace near midnight on July 3, 2010, and the pair stayed together until the club closed just after 2 a.m.
Club security checked revelers as they entered and re-entered the Glass Street nightclub with metal detectors and physical searches, she said.
Herman walked her to her car, they hugged and she drove away.
“Did anyone give him a gun? Did you give him a gun? Was there a gun in your car?” asked Luke Neder, one of Herman’s attorneys.
“No,” Moorer replied.
Shortly after that embrace, previous witnesses testified, at least 10 men beat Herman with baseball bats and brass knuckles.
Three prosecution witnesses testified earlier this week that they saw Herman pull a pistol from his waistband and shoot Jerome Timmons in the head as the man ran toward Taylor Street.
Moorer also testified that after she left the nightclub, she was in a Krystal drive-through on state Highway 58 when she saw Herman’s car speed by and police follow.
But Assistant District Attorney Charlie Minor cast doubt on that statement. He showed an overhead photo and said Moore could not have seen Herman’s car passing as there were buildings in the way and she would have been facing the opposite direction.
Minor also prodded Moorer’s son, Fernando Hawkins, on the witness stand.
Hawkins testified that he put an empty gun holster, which he thought was a cell- phone case, in the center console of the rental car Herman drove that night.
Police found the holster in the backseat of the car after they arrested Herman when he fled after the shooting and later ran from officers on foot.
Minor asked why Hawkins hadn’t reported the holster information to police.
“I told my mother, and she told the lawyer,” Hawkins replied. “I thought it was taken care of.”
The trial resumes Tuesday morning in Judge Rebecca Stern’s courtroom.
Todd South covers courts and the military for the Times Free Press. He has worked at the paper for three years and previously covered crime and safety in Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia. Todd’s hometown is Dodge City, Kan. He served five years in the U.S. Marine Corps and deployed to Iraq before returning to school for his journalism degree from the University of Georgia. Todd previously worked at the Anniston (Ala.) Star. Contact Todd ...
related articles »
Jurors who found Jamaul Herman not guilty of murder on Wednesday told a prosecutor there was not enough evidence to ...
The defense attorney for Jamaul Herman jabbed at points in the murder investigation against her client Thursday, trying to create ...
The murder trial of a 29-year-old Chattanooga man resumes this morning and the lead investigator is expected to testify.
Prosecutors opened the murder trial against a 29-year-old man by describing how two witnesses followed him after a street shooting, ...
