Testimony continues in murder trial for Columbia man accused in 2022 fatal shooting
Olivia Hayes
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Testimony continued on Wednesday in the trial of a Columbia man accused of a 2022 deadly shooting.
Isaac J. Bryant is facing charges of second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of Demetrius Ware. Multiple witnesses and experts took the stand on Wednesday.
Bryant is accused of shooting Ware, 37, of Columbia, outside of a home in the 800 block of Grand Avenue in May of 2022. Police said Bryant drove by the home and shot Ware. Ware was taken to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
Wednesday’s witness testimony focused heavily on the events following the shooting, with accounts from the coroner who performed Ware’s autopsy, responding officers and another key witness in the case, who testified under immunity from the state.
Carl Stacy, a Forensic Pathologist, said Ware had traces of Methamphetamine, THC and Nicotine present in his system at the time of his death, according to his toxicology report. Stacy’s findings found that Ware had two bullet wounds in his forehead. He said the bullet came in at an angle and that he was shot about two feet away from ware was standing.
Stacy said on the stand that his exam can only tell the direction the bullet came from, not where the shooter shot from or who shot the gun.
The state’s next witnesses were two of the responding Columbia Police Department officers the night of the shooting: Jesse Ritter and Malique Dameron.
Ritter described locating three shell casings at the scene shortly after arriving. Both Ritter and Dameron said that they learned of a suspected car and were told Bryant was a suspect from other officers on scene.
Ritter said he found the car parked shortly after the shooting in the 200 block of Lincoln Dr. He said he called for backup and watched to see if anyone would approach the car. Dameron assisted Ritter with surveillance of the area.
The officers later saw a man and a woman approach the car, which introduces Mark Moore into the timeline. The officers said when they went to approach Moore, he had latex gloves on his hands and appeared to be messing with the blue Chevy Impala. When Moore was being taken into custody, Ritter said he found two more shell casings by the car.
Ritter and Dameron both said they did not read Moore his Miranda rights. Both officers also said they did not see Bryant near the scene or the car the night of the shooting.
Testimony also heard in court details of how they gathered evidence from the blue Impala following Moore’s arrest and how they say it tied Bryant to the shooting. Danielle Clifton, a Crime Scene Investigator for the Columbia Police Department, testified that car and court documents with Isaac Bryant’s name were found in the trunk of the car.
John Voss, the lead detective on the case but now retired, also took the stand and detailed phone data tied to Bryant’s phone number that he said placed him on or near Grand Ave. at the time Ware was shot and on or near Lincoln Dr. shortly after the shooting took place. However, Voss said Bryant’s phone itself was not ever recovered by police.
Voss said the data can’t confirm who had possession of the phone or who was using it. However, the number was registered to Bryant through T-Mobile records.
Moore was introduced as a key witness to testify under immunity from the state. Before he was put on the stand, Bryant’s team objected to Moore testifying. They said his deposition was based heavily on hearsay and cited a note from his attorney that he was not competent to testify, but no previous ruling was delivered by a judge regarding Moore’s competence.
Moore’s attorney also expressed concern about him being vulnerable to federal prosecution. However, Judge Jacobs allowed testimony to move forward and Moore to take the stand.
Moore testified that he was friends with Bryant and had spoken with him on the phone the day leading up to the shooting. He said Bryant asked him for a ride, but he could not pick him up. After the call, he said he later saw Bryant walking on Oak Street and stopped briefly to talk to him.
The defense later explained in their questioning of Moore that Bryant was walking to his cousin’s house, who is also a mother figure, when Moore saw him walking. Moore said Bryant seemed normal when he saw him in person.
He said that later that night, after Ware had been shot in the early morning hours of May 8, 2022, when he arrived at the blue Impala, that he was there to help a woman who had called him to help her pick up a car.
Moore said he did not know what he was being arrested for that night and did not remember getting told his rights. He also said that in his police interview, he was not aware he could have an attorney present with him and that he said what he said in his initial interview so he could leave, but maintains that he feels like he was truthful.
Adam O’Dell, a Columbia Police Detective, took the stand. He conducted the interview of Moore. O’Dell mirandized Moore before the interview began and also obtained Moore’s phone during.
Moore explained that he was put in a holding cell for hours after his arrest and was questioned after he fell asleep in the holding cell. Moore identified Bryant to the police in his interview through a photo, and that he got the keys to the blue Impala from Bryant when he had seen him on the street earlier that day.
However, in his deposition later to the defense, he said that the woman had the car keys when she picked him up that night. Moore also said on the stand that he believes his deposition reflected a more accurate account of his memory of the events that night.
Moore also revealed he cannot read or write, but was asked in his interrogation by officers to identify street names, told the street names by officers and that the officers marked important locations to the case for him instead of himself.
During O’Dell’s testimony, a video of his interview with Moore was played, showing O’Dell presenting Moore with the map and helping him figure out where to mark down the location he saw Bryant. Moore did not read off the streets by names, but instead is seen on the video walking Detective O’Dell through turns he would take to get around in the area.
The defense suggested O’Dell telling Moore the streets in the area could be seen as coaching, but O’Dell said that the directions he gave Moore were to help give him an idea of where the map covered. O’Dell also testified that he was not aware that Moore could not read or write.
Moore said he did not know Ware had been shot at the time of his arrest and that he did not see Bryant driving the car, did not see Bryant near Grand Ave. and did not see Bryant holding a gun the night of or the day leading up to the shooting. O’Dell testified that Moore communicated with Bryant through multiple phone calls on May 8th after the shooting on Grand Ave. had been reported.
The trial is expected to go the rest of the week.