Ben Schachtman: It’s been nearly five years since the double homicide now known as the Tru Colors killings.
On July 24, 2021, a 911 call was received regarding a double-homicide that took place at the home of George Taylor III, the Chief Operating Officer of TRU Colors Brewery, and son of the brewery’s founder, George Taylor Jr., whose mission was reducing street violence by hiring active gang members - many of them from rival gangs.
Two people were killed: Kordreese Tyson and Bri’Yanna Williams. Another woman, M’Kaila Walker, was wounded.
Okay Aaleah, so you’ve been monitoring the trial of Omonte Bell and Dyrell Green, otherwise known as the TRU Colors case, which began earlier last month. Let's do a round-up of the events of the trial so far.
Aaleah MCconnell: Yeah, Ben. So, early on, we had some coverage which went over the slew of pre-trial motions that the defense team wanted to get approved from the judge — mainly a motion to sever the trial, meaning to try Bell and Green separately, which was denied. We’ll have links to that if people want to catch up.
Related: A joint trial for two suspects in the high-profile Tru Colors case begins in New Hanover County
Related: Pre-trial motions wrap after second day, Tru Colors case heads into jury selection
A motion to issue juror questionnaires was also heard, and that was approved, which leads us to the next part of the pre-trial process: jury selection.
Ben: Yeah, so let’s go back a couple of weeks to when this process started – what were your biggest takeaways from that?
Aaleah: In this case, Jury selection took a bit longer than I think the court intended since there was a days-long delay due to illness, but of course, the process of selecting jurors can be exhaustive in and of itself - since each juror is questioned in what’s called the Voir dire examination.
And what that is, is the process of essentially cross-examining a panel of prospective jurors, similar to a witness who’s giving a sworn testimony, to sort out jurors who may have a personal interest in the case or possess any type of bias to one side or another. For example, people are asked whether they’re related to or connected to members of law enforcement.
Ben: In this particular case, those who have loved ones involved in gangs or impacted by violent gang activity could carry biases that swing either end of the spectrum, which would impact their ability to issue an impartial decision.
Aaleah: Right. A few prospective jurors definitely stood out in the process. One said they may have been a distant relative of Koredreese Tyson, one of the victims in this case.
Another flat-out said if one of the defendants, referring to Bell, was only driving away from the scene that night, then they would not convict him for that, and prosecutors are using text messages published in court records to suggest that Bell was the driver of the vehicle believed to be used in the crime that night.
And another juror said their family member was fatally shot, and because of that, they felt they could not be impartial in this case.
Ultimately, counsel questioned two panels of jurors; the final selection of jurors is majority white, with one Black juror. But the number of male to female jurors appears to be more balanced.
Ben: And coming back from the Memorial Day break, counsel made their opening statements right?
Aaleah: They did. And the point of the opening statements, for those that may not know, is to provide a roadmap to the jurors of what to expect throughout the case.
They also go over any key facts and evidence that’ll be presented in the trial.
Assistant District Attorney Doug Carriker, the lead prosecutor in this case, made a pretty bold introduction in his opening statement, recounting how then 21-year-old M’Kaila Walker was woken up from her sleep during the early morning hours of July 24, 2021, by a bullet - and discovered her boyfriend of a few weeks, Koredreese Tyson, deceased from two fatal gunshot wounds.
In Carrikers’ words, quote “she is woken to a nightmare of confusion.”
Ben: And just so our audience knows, the presiding judge in this trial, G. Frank Jones, has allowed the media to record audio in the courtroom during trial proceedings, however it's prohibited to publish any of that audio. Am I getting that right?
A: Yes, the recordings are more for accuracy than anything, so I’ll be inserting quotes where necessary. Which is important to note because most of what has occurred in this trial so far has been testimony from experts and witnesses close to the case.
Carriker made it very clear during his opening statement that this is a case of digital evidence, noting that no fingerprints or DNA collected came back conclusive, and none of the guns found matched the casings used at the murder scene.
B: So not the usual evidence we’re used to from like a stereotypical evidence – but more with cell phone messages and locations, as I understand it.
A: that’s right.
Green’s court-appointed capital defender, Matthew Geoffrion, agreed that there was definitely a lack of evidence in this case, saying, (quote) “This is 100% the state’s case and the state’s burden of proof.”
And he called into question the accuracy of the state’s evidence.
B: So Day 1 was a pretty important day for testimonies, what can you tell me about that?
A: Well several law enforcement officers and agents were brought to the stand, and were asked about the general scope of their roles in the investigation. Each laying out the initial steps they took when the investigation started.
Deputy Matthew Thompson who was one of the first deputies to respond to the home of George Taylor III, talked about his attempts to retrieve Taylor’s Nest doorbell camera footage - this was one of the biggest takeaways from this particular testimony.
Thompson struggled. He was only able to pull thumbnails of a Black Volvo SUV -- the alleged vehicle used in the crime, which law enforcement later recovered -- but not the actual footage.
Eventually, with Taylor’s permission, they activated his account in the hopes of retrieving the video footage. But by doing so, it erased all the data from the unpaid version of Taylor’s account.
During Geoffrion’s cross-examination, Thompson confirmed that the screenshots did not show either suspect.
B: Tell me about the other law enforcement officials who testified.
A: So, Captain Lauren Carroll, she oversaw the entire crime scene. She testified about trying to obtain footage from Cameras located at the entrance of the neighborhood and at the top of the staircase inside Taylor’s home, but found that they were not operational.
She said investigators collected three phones from the room where Tyson and Walker were, and confirmed that no phone was found on Williams.
Prior evidence showed that William’s phone was taken from the residence after the murders, and was tracked alongside the phone of Raquel Adams, a third suspect in the case who was convicted last year. However, Carroll said, her phone was never found.
B: She also talked about some evidence of gunfire.
A: Yeah – Carroll walked through all the shell casings found at the crime scene.
And I referred back to court records of previous proceeding to back up this portion of her testimony.
According to those documents, there were three shell casings from one gun in relation to Tyson’s and Walker’s shootings that took place upstairs. And two casings from a second gun were found near Williams’ body downstairs.
Carroll then confirmed that there were no signs of forced entry at Taylor’s home before pointing out to the jury an elephant pendant necklace pulled as evidence from the black Volvo. It not totally clear how that might play into the state’s case later - we’ll have to see.
B: And you said a few other pretty important witnesses were brought to the stand.
A: Yes, that would be M’Kaila Walker, one of the two survivors of the shootings, the other being George Taylor III, and De’Marcus Gaines.
B: Gotcha.
A: So, Walker, who had mostly gone unidentified in the media, was at George Taylor’s home on Providence Road, where Koredreese Tyson was living on the night of the incident. She went with her friend and co-worker Bri’Yanna Williams
Going back to Carriker’s opening statement, he alluded to the importance of Walker’s testimony, saying in a roundabout way that this was a case of two people associated with rival clans, if you will, becoming involved romantically.
It’s well-established in court documents that Tyson was the leader of the North and South Carolina branches of the Gangster Disciples - a rival gang to the Double ii Bloods that Bell and Green are allegedly members of.
During cross-examination, Geoffrion suggested that Walker’s brother, Malachai Cooper, who goes by Cut, may be associated with the Double ii Bloods - the gang that prosecutors alleged killed Tyson.
B: From your understanding, many of the prosecutors’ questions focused on the nature of Walker and Tyson’s relationship and the events leading up to the shootings.
A: Correct. Walker testified that Williams rode with her to visit Tyson after their graveyard shift at Taco Bell.
She also confirmed to the jury that she and Green had argued in the parking lot of her workplace about her boyfriend, Tyson, earlier that night around 11p.m.
As her testimony continued, she spoke about waking up to the sound of gunshots. And said that since she was sharing the same bed with Tyson at the time of the shooting, she was wounded in two places, her chest and arm.
Walker seemed reluctant to answer questions posed by the defense, answering questions with more questions at one point - understandably, given how intense and personal the questions were.
During cross-examination, Bell’s defender Maleaha Kimrey called into question Walker’s loyalty to Tyson in a way, asking why she didn’t seek help for him when law enforcement arrived.
When the State redirected that question to Walker for clarification, she said (quote), “I could tell he was not moving, he wasn't making any sounds, he was just lying there.”
Walker was the only witness who the defense objected to being released from their subpoena, meaning they would like to further question her at another time.
B: Moving on to De’Marcus Gaines’ testimony, court documents show that he was with Dyrell Green at the Taco Bell during Green’s and Walker’s heated exchange regarding Korey Tyson - who happens to be Gaines’ cousin. How’d that go?
A: Gaines testified that he dropped Green off at a gambling house on Fulton Avenue after that exchange, where he planned to be picked up by a stripper, though there was no further probing into that.
However, court records show that Raquel Adams had been en route to the Fulton Avenue location after Green was dropped off.
The focal point of his cross-exam was Gaines’ arrest, which took place days after the shooting, on July 27, 2021. And since you’ve covered this extensively in the past, I’ll pass this over to you for explanation.
B: Sure! So, according to court records, Gaines was subsequently charged with felony possession of a firearm, and brought to the sheriff’s office for questioning regarding the shootings. Gaines was already on probation at the time.
After several months, that charge was reduced, leading Green’s former defender Emily Byrum to ask for all discovery related to Gaines, basically to find out if he had exchanged information with law enforcement for a more favorable plea arrangement. No such evidence of that happening was found.
A: Right, and Green’s current defender, Matthew Geoffrion, got Gaines to testify to the fact that a good part of his interrogation with law enforcement was spent discussing what he knew about his cousin, Korey Tyson’s death. Geoffrion said that was recorded by law enforcement.
Upon further questioning, Gaines confirmed that he never saw or spoke with Omonte Bell that night.
He also confirmed that he never heard Green threaten himself or anyone else prior to the incident, but he said after the incident that he got a call from Green, in which Green threatened to kill him.
And more or less, that’s where his testimony concluded.
Day 2
B: Now, let's talk about the second day of testimony. Many of those were given by law enforcement regarding the collection of phone tracking data and surveillance camera footage from locations of interest.
A: Yes. But, arguably the most anticipated testimony on this day was that of George Taylor III.
At first he was asked about the relationship between TRU Colors Brewery and the active gang members who worked there, and his role within the company.
As many people who follow this case know, TRU Colors hired active gang members, many from rival gangs, with the goal of decreasing gun violence. And that’s pretty much what Taylor testified to at this point of questioning.
Taylor said that Tyson was living with him in July of 2021 because he had trouble finding a private landlord that would rent to him given his criminal record. One other TRU Colors employee lived with Taylor as well.
When questioned about the night of the incident, Taylor said that he went home around 9 p.m., ordered food and then went to sleep around 11.
Around 3 a.m he woke up, and was able to make out two female voices, he was not aware that they were Walker and Williams. He said he went back to sleep after that, frustrated that two people were in his house who he didn’t know.
BS: But that’s not where things ended, of course.
A: Right, he was woken up again around 5 a.m. to the sound of his front door opening. He said this wasn’t uncommon, but it was odd that whoever was entering was being very quiet about it.
At that point, he grabbed his shotgun and sat up in his bed, but soon brushed it off and tried to go back to sleep. He said about ten minutes later, that’s when he heard gunshots and grabbed his gun to barricade himself in his bathroom.
He told the jury that he first heard two or three shots and then shortly after another two shots. He didn’t hear anything else after that, saying it was (quote) “surprisingly quiet.”
The lead prosecutor Doug Carriker asked why Taylor didn’t call 911 and he said he wasn’t quite sure at first that those were actual gunshots he heard. He contacted a series of people without success, including Tyson. But after about ten minutes he said police had already arrived.
Taylor said that other than grabbing his phone, he was in the bathroom for hours before law enforcement showed up and he learned of Tyson’s death.
Day 3
B: And that brings us to the third day, what stood out the most from this set of testimony.
A: Yeah, so we heard from retired forensic pathologist, Karen Kelly, who studies how diseases overtake the body and performs autopsies to determine cause and manner of death.
And I’ll save all the morbid details, but Kelly essentially walked the jury through the information she was able to gather from the gunshot wounds of Williams and Tyson.
B: Anything else you’d like to note about this particular testimony?
A: Well, I did notice that Kelly’s testimony was particularly difficult for the family of the victims to listen to. At a certain point, some of them had to excuse themselves, because hearing the details of their loved one’s death could have been a lot for them.
B: So the trial is still ongoing, can you give us a preview of what to expect next?
A: Of course. So far, we heard testimony from T.J. Waddell, a gang expert for the Wilmington Police Department who has worked with the FBI for many years – and there were more testimonies related to the data extracted from the defendant’s phones. Specifically, the very extensive report of Detective Eric Kelley, who works in the Sheriff’s Office’s CSI unit.
The phone data collected in his reports are so extensive that the court expects his testimony to take a few days.
B: Well, alright! Good work on this, Aaleah.
A: You got it, Ben.
