BECKLEY, W.V. (LOOTPRESS) – In a pretrial motion hearing held Wednesday morning, motions were made by both the state and the defense regarding the Tremaine Jackson trial.
Jackson is currently being held at Southern Regional Jail after being charged with murder, conspiracy and felon in possession of a firearm. Jackson was arrested in Aug. of 2020 in connection to the murder of Troy Williams in the Pet Supplies Parking lot in Beckley in May of 2020.
Brian Parson, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney on the case, was the first to bring his motions to Judge Burnside.
First, he presented a motion that would allow the state to use evidence showing Jackson has a pattern of violence.
Parsons called Det. Johnathan Weaver to the stand. Det. Weaver is a Corporal in the Kanawha County Police Department and has been working as a detective since 2015.
Parsons questioned Det. Weaver about a shooting that took place on the west side of Charleston in Dec. 2015.
Det. Weaver, who worked as the lead detective on the case, summarized the events, stating that when he arrived at the scene, he was notified that the victim had been shot in the lower abdomen with a handgun after an altercation occurred over a drug exchange. The victim, Bryan Rogers, later passed away in the hospital.
Jackson was arrested in connection to the murder and later pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter before his case went into a third trial. The first trial ended in jury misconduct, and the second ended in a hung jury.
Parsons presented a document to Det. Weaver, which the detective recognized. The document was Jackson’s guilty plea conviction order bearing the date of Nov. 2, 2017. The document was signed by the presiding judge and appeared under seal.
Parsons also called Det. Nick Walters of the Beckley Police Department, the investigating officer in the 2020 shooting of Troy Williams.
Walters summarized the shooting, saying that an altercation has ensued after following a drug exchange and that Williams was shot in the abdomen with a handgun.
Parsons stated that he believed this evidence should be admissible in court due to the short time between occurrences and the similarities between the 2015 shooting and the 2020 shooting. Both Rogers and Williams were shot in the abdomen by a handgun following an alteration that resulted from a drug exchange.
Defense Attorney Kris Kostenko argued that, due to the two failed jury trials, something had caused the jury to believe Jackson was not involved in the 2015 shooting. He also said if the state was permitted to use the guilty plea order it would be confusing to the jury of the present trial.
Judge Burnside took the motion under advisement, deferring his ruling so that he could gain more facts on both occurrences.
Parsons recalled Walters to the stand to support his second motion: a motion to use flight evidence. Parsons asked the detective to detail how he located and captured Jackson following the 2020 shooting.
Walters explained that, shortly after starting the investigation, he discovered a phone number in the victim’s cell phone records that potentially belonged to Jackson. Walters had also discovered text messages on the victim’s phone to said number. These messages contained personal information that led Walters to believe the phone number did belong to Jackson.
Walters then received a warrant to use cell phone towers to triangulate the phone’s last known location.
Walters said this phone was turned on up until the shooting and then turned off following the crime. Walters also mentioned that Jackson’s parole officer heard from him the day of the shooting and then never heard from Jackson again.
Walters, who was unable to locate Jackson in West Virginia and believed he had left the state, took the case to the U.S. Marshals. Jackson was captured in North Carolina roughly two-and-a-half months after the shooting.
The phone, believed to belong to Jackson, was never recovered.
Despite Kostenko’s arguments, which stated that Jackson did not flee to North Carolina to avoid persecution but instead went to attend a family member’s funeral and chose to violate his parole in fear he would not be permitted to go, Burnside granted Parson’s motion.
Burnside also granted Parsons’ other motions which included a motion to bar the mention of the defendant’s possible testimony in opening statements, a motion to bar evidence of the victim’s character, a motion to bar the use of a mental condition by the defense, and a motion to bar the evidence of guilt of another.
The defense also made several motions on Wednesday, including a motion to receive material in advance and not in the presence of the jury and a motion to allow the defendant to wear street clothes during trial.
All of the defense’s motions were granted.
Jackson’s trial is currently scheduled for March 1, 2021.
