KNOXVILLE, Tenn — UPDATE (Nov. 21): The trial of three young men charged in a 2021 attack on two Austin-East students ended on Tuesday, Nov. 21.
Ahmad Gatlin was found guilty as charged on all five counts, including two counts of attempted murder. Sentencing for him is scheduled for Jan. 5.
Jurors decided Rashan Jordan was not guilty, but they were not able to reach a verdict on Deondre Davis' charges. A mistrial was declared in Davis' case, and now the state will need to decide if it wants to pursue a case against Davis.
Jordan and Davis were previously convicted of killing Stanley Freeman Jr., a then-16-year-old Austin-East student, and were sentenced to life in prison for stalking and killing him.
--
Defense attorneys for three young men accused of trying to kill two Austin-East High School students happily underscored Wednesday what the prosecution admits: There's no DNA or fingerprint evidence that links their clients to the alleged murder weapons or vehicle used in the attack.
Wednesday marked the second day of trial in Knox County Criminal Court for Ahmad Gatlin, Rashan Jordan and Deondre Davis.
They're accused of targeting and chasing the students Jan. 14, 2021, as they left the school. They started shooting at them near Jarnigan & Son Mortuary from a stolen Honda Pilot and pursued them to the Exxon station at the corner of Magnolia Avenue and Cherry Street, where targeted victim Johnkelian Mathis, 17, got out of his Infiniti and fired more than a dozen gunshots of his own.
The defendants fled, prosecutors say, and Mathis and girlfriend Azley Mills ran into the gas station's bathroom, where they ditched Mathis's .45-caliber pistol.
Mills suffered an eye injury in the attack.
Testimony started Tuesday and is expected to go all week. Judge Steve Sword is presiding over the trial.
All three defendants were juveniles at the time of the crime. They've been transferred to adult status. Jordan is 17; Gatlin and Davis are now 19.
Prosecutors say they've got photos and videos from cellphones depicting the young men showing off weapons used in the shooting. They say they can also match shell casings to the weapons.
But as experts testified Wednesday, no prints of the young men were recovered from spots tested inside the stolen 2018 Honda Pilot. The only fingerprint found was on a Dorito's bag, and police couldn't confirm to whom it belonged.
In addition, TBI experts confirmed through testing that multiple people touched the steering wheel and the gearshift of the vehicle, but the genetic material could not be clearly separated to define exactly who had contact with those places in the SUV.
The prosecution, however, told jurors as the trial commenced that they'd see other evidence that links Jordan, Gatlin and Davis to the guns and the shooting -- including photos of them holding the actual weapons.
In addition, they say Mills identified the three young men as participants in the attack. She's expected to testify Thursday.
The defense has cautioned jurors that Mills isn't a reliable witness.
Mathis was shot and killed months later, in August 2021 in Lonsdale. His killing remains unsolved.
A month after the attack on the A-E students, Davis and Jordan shot and killed another A-E student, 16-year-old Stanley Freeman Jr., as he left school for the day. They started firing as he drove away in the neighborhood. Freeman wrecked and later died.
A jury convicted Davis and Jordan of murder this spring.
