DALLAS — Opening statements and testimony in the trial for one of three men facing charges in the murder of Carter High School alum and former NBA player, Andre Emmett, began Tuesday.
Larry Jenkins is charged with capital murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
Emmett, 37, was shot on Sept. 23, 2019 during a robbery while eating Whataburger in his car in the driveway of his Old East Dallas home near Lower Greenville, Dallas police said.
The former Texas Tech University basketball star was taken to a hospital where he later died.
Jenkins’ attorneys told the court Tuesday “it starts out with Michael Lucky and it starts out with Keith Johnson” and that their client is getting “thrown in with the rest of the mix.” Lucky and Johnson were both indicted on capital murder charges in December 2019.
Dallas police released home security video captured by both Emmett and his neighbor’s doorbell cameras, which was played in court Tuesday. Half a dozen gunshots can be heard on the video, which also shows Emmett getting out of his car and running away.
A passerby told the court he called 911 after he saw an injured Emmett, who was later found by first responders a short distance from his home, investigators testified.
Emmett’s mother, Regina Oliver, took the stand and told the court she arrived at Emmett’s house early Sept. 23 to drop her granddaughter, Emmett’s daughter, off. She told the court she called 911 after she saw that the door to her son’s Range Rover was open and his cellphone inside.
Oliver became emotional when shown pictures of her son while on the stand and also while the home security video was played for the court.
Officers and crime scene investigators with the Dallas Police Department testified Tuesday that they collected evidence from two crime scenes that were relatively close: The location where Emmett was found and the driveway of his home, which is where they said the robbery occurred.