The 25-year-old New Orleans native accused of killing a Little Rock man in a June 2016 barrage of gunfire that wounded the victim's girlfriend and her 3-year-old son was found guilty as charged Tuesday and sentenced to life in prison.
The Pulaski County jury deliberated barely an hour to convict Denzell Terrell Braud of capital murder and two counts of first-degree battery for killing Cordelle Collins, a 22-year-old father of four, and wounding Alexis Symone Davis, 23, and toddler Khiry Zaire Davis, now 5.
Braud was the boyfriend of Collins' mother, and all five lived together in the woman's home at the Arkansas River Apartments on Cantrell Road.
Deputy prosecutors Ashley Clancy and Michelle Quiller told jurors that Collins had died trying to protect the people he loved. His last words, as heard by Davis, clearly identified his killer as the man they all knew as "N.O.," Quiller said in closing statements.
"She heard him say, 'N.O., why you shoot me,' 'Don't shoot me, bro,'" Quiller told the six men and six women.
Braud's target had probably been Collins' mother, Sharonda Franklin. But sensing Braud's growing angry mood, she had snuck out of the apartment hours earlier and walked away.
A week before, in a similar and inexplicable rage, Braud had put a gun to the 40-year-old woman's head, saying the only reason he did not kill her was because of her grandchildren.
Still unable to understand why Braud was mad, she hoped that by leaving that morning before dawn, he would calm down, Clancy said.
"She felt it coming, so Sharonda does everything she can to de-escalate the situation," the prosecutor said. "That's what she can do as a mom to protect everyone in the house."
With Franklin gone, Braud took his anger out on her son, ambushing Collins as he walked out of his bedroom, Clancy told jurors. He'd been called by his mother to come get her after she had walked to Rodney Parham Road, leaving behind her purse and cellphone.
Shot through the lungs and heart, Collins' life would have been measured in seconds, and he used that time to get back to the couple's bedroom, get his own gun and fire once at Braud before dropping dead, Clancy said.
"In his final 20 seconds of life, Collins raced to get back there and protect the people he loved," Clancy told jurors.
As bullets tore through the bedroom door, Davis picked up Collins' weapon and shot back, scaring Braud out of the apartment, where a neighbor saw him, carrying two guns, flee into the woods behind the apartments, the prosecutor told jurors.
Davis was wounded in the chest while her little boy had been shot in the chest and knee.
To make her point, Clancy stacked the evidence from the apartment, including 72 bullets and fragments, on the railing before jurors. The photos showed that Braud had made a "Molotov cocktail" using wadded newspaper and a bottle of cooking oil, the prosecutor said. His intention -- to set the apartment on fire -- was further made clearer from the newspaper he used to cover the couch, Clancy told jurors.
Braud did not testify, and his lawyers called no witnesses on his behalf. His attorney, Alicia Walton-Middleton, told jurors that authorities had no evidence to tie her client to the shooting and that Braud was being punished for surviving the gunfire.
No witness saw the gunman, and no DNA or fingerprints can tie Braud to the shootings, Walton-Middleton said.
"Where is anything tying Mr. Braud to this event? Where is it?" she said. "They want you to come back with a guilty verdict because Mr. Braud wasn't injured. He ran for his life same as anyone would when someone starts shooting."
She asked jurors to consider how Braud came to the attention of authorities. He escaped the gunfire, then flagged down a woman to call police, saying someone had kidnapped him and shot at him. Those are not the actions of a guilty man, Walton-Middleton said.
With one man dead and a baby wounded, police and prosecutors needed to find someone to punish, and Braud, known for his peculiar moods, was the convenient target, she said.
"This investigation from the beginning was about finding someone to blame," Walton-Middleton said, calling Braud a scapegoat. "Someone does need to be punished ... but that someone is not Denzell Braud."
She urged jurors to dismiss the prosecution arguments as "mere speculation" and acquit Braud.
Undisclosed to jurors -- at Circuit Judge Chris Piazza's order -- was the fact that three days before the trial started, prosecutors had discovered what they believed to be the murder weapon.
Quiller and Clancy had been out behind the apartments with their investigator Patrick Raper, exploring the woods where police said Braud had fled immediately after the shooting. Raper found the guns, a Mac 10 and a Hi-Point pistol in the woods, directly behind the spot where a witness told police she'd seen the man walk out of the woods.
The judge had already denied a prosecution request to delay the trial so the weapons, which Clancy said were extremely rusty, could be examined at the state Crime Laboratory to determine whether either of them fired the bullets that killed Collins.
Piazza also denied Clancy's request on Monday to relax his ban against telling jurors the guns had been found.
Clancy said she wanted to tell jurors that the bullets that killed Collins came from a gun similar to the Hi Point pistol and that a Mac-10 fires some of the same types of bullets found in the apartment. Collins had traded a Mac-10 to Braud for a car a couple of weeks before he was killed, the prosecutor said.
Braud's lawyers objected to any mention of the weapons, and the judge agreed that disclosing the existence of the guns, without knowing more about them, would do more to harm Braud's defense than it would help jurors reach a verdict.
The judge also limited what defense attorneys could say about the evidence after prosecutors asked that Braud's lawyers be prevented from telling jurors that no guns were found.
Metro on 08/22/2018