Accused killer Shawn Smoot appeared in court Friday for the second day of his pre-trial motions hearings. Investigators say Smoot shot his ex-girlfriend, Brooke Morris, 23, and dumped her body along a Roane County road in 2011.
On Friday, the prosecution and defense debated what evidence should be admitted at his trial. Among the testimony was Morris' landlord Carol Meredith, who claims Smoot had a history of violence.
Meredith testified that in January 2011, months before Morris died, an upstairs tenant called her, complaining about bloodcurdling screams coming from Brooke's room.
She said Morris told her Smoot assaulted her after hiding in the shower when she came home.
"She told me that he beat her head against the floor and tried to rape her,” Meredith said.
She claimed Smoot broke the window to escape, leaving a cracked window and a broken frame that amounted in $275 in damage. After Meredith and her husband informed him of the damage to their property, Meredith said Smoot wrote her an apology letter admitting to causing the damage.
Meredith read that letter aloud to the court: “Mr. Clayton, my apologies,’” she read. “Women tend to make us do crazy things. Unfortunately that night was one of them. Thank you for allowing me to make amends on this.’”
State prosecutors argued her testimony suggests bad character, which will help prove an intent to kill. Smoot's attorney, however, argued all "prior bad acts" before Morris ordered a protection order against him in February 2011 should be inadmissible.
Judge Wicks will consider both sides’ arguments for admissible evidence before the trial starts on July 25.
Meanwhile, all the back and forth is aggravating for Morris' mother Tina Gregg.
“It’s a little frustrating for me,” she said. “I think we should be farther along than we are. Almost five years into the case and we’re still arguing about the order of protection.”
Gregg said she hates that her daughter is gone, but she has to live with it every day.
“It angers me. She’s needs justice and I am not going to stop fighting until she gets her justice.”