‘Am I gonna die?’ Jury in Macon teens’ murder trial sees bodycam footage of dying victim
In the minutes after he was shot, Damond “Miami” Stevens lay sprawled on a sidewalk beside some Houston Avenue apartments.
He told a cop that his body hurt all over.
“Am I gonna die?” Stevens asked.
No one could say.
Within half an hour, Stevens was dead, slain at age 38.
Some of his last breaths were recorded by a bodycam worn by sheriff’s deputies sent to the scene that night in late May of 2020 at the Bowden Homes public housing complex. Stevens never mentioned — if he knew — who shot him.
He was Bibb County’s 25th homicide victim that year. His death came in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, amid a surge of record-breaking violence. Since then, there have been more than 130 killings here.
A backlog of criminal cases caused by the pandemic shutdown has bogged down an already swamped justice system. The case against two teenagers accused of killing Stevens is the county’s first murder case from the time of the Covid-19 outbreak to wend its way to trial.
Testimony began Tuesday in Bibb Superior Court, and included statements from a young man named Jacorey “Mookie” Holloway, who had been hanging out with Stevens the night Stevens was killed.
Not long after midnight, at about 12:30 a.m. on May 22, the two were standing near some parked cars at the edge of Bowden Homes. The apartments there sit at the corner of Houston and Cynthia avenues, not quite a mile south of the county jail.
There had been bursts of sporadic gunfire around the complex in the hour or two before the fatal shooting.
Holloway, after arguing with a girlfriend who tossed his cellphone at him, cracking it, had fired a single shot into the air as she drove away.
More shots split the air about midnight, perhaps 50 yards down Houston, where a guy hanging out with Stevens and Holloway dashed, gun in hand, to fire back.
The deadly shooting happened half an hour or so afterward.
Stevens and Holloway, by then the only ones still there near the intersection of Houston and Cynthia, were apparently ambushed.
Prosecutors have suggested that the gunmen took aim at Stevens and Holloway, mistaking them for the guy who had fired shots earlier in the salvo on Houston Avenue.
Holloway, now 27, was struck by bullets that hit his right buttock as he bolted toward a relative’s apartment.
Stevens, shot three times, collapsed maybe 20 yards away from the shooting scene in front of an apartment facing Houston Avenue.
Two teenagers later arrested and accused of murder, Deshond Jah’Ryon Willis and Naylan Jon’Tez Woodford, were 15 and 16 at the time.
Conflicting descriptions of the suspects, who are now both 18, could weigh in their favor as the trial proceeds.
Attorney Paul Christian, the lawyer representing Willis, told jurors in his opening statement that the fatal gunfire that night was part of a “convoluted” series of events.
Christian said Holloway had been “high and drunk” when “the ruckus” happened, suggesting that Holloway may be an unreliable witness.
Christian told the jury to prepare to make note of a long list of characters they might hear from. He mentioned nicknames of people at least peripherally involved. The nicknames included “Dee,” “Soso-G,” “Cierra,” “Ti-Man,” “Peanut” and “Bubbalicious,” most of whom were among the two dozen or so people on the prosecution’s witness list.
“Now when these people testify,” Christian said, “(they’re) gonna reeling off these names fast and furious. ... That’s why I’m providing this now so you can kind of have a layout.”
He also mentioned the episodes of gunplay prior to the shooting, but said what ultimately was most important was the final, deadly encounter, one where many if not most involved had been smoking marijuana, drinking and were armed.
“You’re going to see what a difficult job (the investigator) had,” Christian said. “He had an exceedingly difficult job.”
Prosecutors have said the fatal gunfire was a retaliation shooting. They contend Willis and Woodford, the teens accused of murdering Stevens and shooting Holloway, were among a group of young people who were shot at by an acquaintance of Stevens and Holloway in the earlier exchange of bullets on Houston Avenue.
Prosecutors allege that Willis and Woodford got their own gun, returned to Bowden homes then snuck up on Stevens and Holloway and opened fire, not realizing their intended target was not there.
Testimony continued Thursday.
This story was originally published October 27, 2022 at 10:02 AM.