Andre Emmett Murder Trial: Jury deliberating case in shooting death of former NBA player
Andre Emmett Murder Trial: Jury deliberates after combative day of testimony
Larry Jenkins is accused of capital murder in the death of former NBA player and Dallas Carter basketball star Andre Emmett in 2019. In Day 3 of testimony prosecutors showed tracking data putting Jenkins at the scene. The defense says that doesn't prove that Jenkins was there.
DALLAS - The prosecution wrapped up its case against murder suspect Larry Jenkins in court on Thursday, and the jury is now deliberating the case.
Jenkins is one of three people accused of killing former NBA player and Texas Tech star Andre Emmett outside of his Old East Dallas home in 2019. The other two defendants will go on trial later this year.
Jenkins’ uncle, Jamel Hardy, was called to the stand Thursday, though he was unhappy about being under subpoena to testify.
"The only reason why I’m here is that y'all had me come up here on another charge and you subpoenaed me to court and I told you over the phone before I came there that I don’t have nothing to do with nothing," Hardy said.
Prosecutors pressed him about a group of cars that showed up outside his mother’s Dallas apartment back on September 22, 2019.
"It was a white Chrysler, it was a brown car behind it, it was a black car behind it," Hardy said.
Hardy, who the judge had to admonish for his language at times and who has his own criminal record, testified that he didn't know what the people in the cars were up to, and went to get his guns, then he saw his nephew sitting on the curb.
Prosecutors tried to put Jenkins in the Chrysler 300.
[LAWYER: "So he wasn't near the Chrysler 300?"]
"No," Hardy answered.
The Chrysler is critical to the case, as surveillance video captured a Chrysler 300 and eyewitnesses saw a Chrysler 300 after the shooting.
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The white Chrysler 300 was purchased just weeks before by a co-defendant’s girlfriend had a tracking device put on it.
"We provide GPS tracking services primarily to help people get their cars back if they're stolen," William Cheney, with Procon Analytics, explained.
It was tracked to near where Emmett was robbed and murdered at 1801 North Prairie Avenue.
"2:19 a.m., the vehicle is at zero. It's stopped and we see that the vehicle is now at an address range of 1801 to 1915 North Prairie Avenue," prosecutor Summer Elmazi said.
The defense tried to downplay the GPS.
[LAWYER: "Mr. Cheney, the device can tell us a lot, but it can't tell us who was driving the vehicle, correct?"]
"That's correct," Cheney responded.
[LAWYER: "And it can't tell us the number of people in the vehicle?"
"Correct," Cheney said.
Though what GPS tracking alone could not do, cell phone mapping could do, as it placed Jenkins’ cell phone in the same space with the Chrysler 300.
Mapping the phone and its use from Uptown, where Emmett had been clubbing, to across the street from the Whataburger where Emmett got food.
Ultimately, leaving the area where Emmett lived and was killed.
"And it shows the automobile moving south from the location of the crime," said Greg Gambrell, who has worked for the Dallas County DA’s Office, in the digital muti-media evidence division.
The prosecution rested its case Thursday, then closing arguments took place.
The jury is now deliberating the case against Jenkins.
READ MORE: Andre Emmett Murder Trial: Day 2 of testimony in killing of former NBA player
On Wednesday, the prosecution called two career criminals to the stand.
Dominique McNeely testified that Jenkins told him he robbed and killed Emmett in September 2019.
Arkeen Jones, who is out on bond on unrelated charges of engaging organized criminal activity, also claimed Jenkins told him he murdered Emmett.
If convicted, Jenkins would receive an automatic life sentence.