‘Praying for my life.’ Trial witness recalls watching Columbus teen’s fatal shooting
An eyewitness testifying Thursday in a Columbus murder trial recounted the oddly casual exchange that preceded a Columbus teen’s fatal 2021 shooting.
The trial goes into its second week Monday, with more testimony expected from a firearms expert who examined the semi-automatic rifle used in the shooting and bullet casings found at the scene.
The eyewitness was Zaccreaus Javon Jones, who recalled sitting on a couch in a 25th Avenue house where others had gathered, among them 17-year-old Dondre Reynolds, who was seated on another couch there.
Emmanuel Truitt came to the door, asking for the host, who was in a back room, Jones said. He said Truitt walked inside, and Reynolds asked him, “Can you pass me my gun?”
He said Truitt picked the rifle up and asked, “You mean this gun?”
Then Truitt started shooting, and Jones dropped to the floor, he said. He heard three or four more shots as he lay there, he added. “I’m praying for my life,” he said.
Asked what Truitt did next, he replied, “I guess he left. When I got up, I didn’t see him.”
He also did not wait to see what happened next, he said. “Immediately I left, because I didn’t know if he was coming back,” he said of Truitt.
Police called at 5:07 p.m. to the house near Alford Street found Reynolds dead in the doorway, shot five times in the chest, back and arm, officers testified. Truitt, then 24, was arrested at his home on Melon Street.
Truitt is being tried on charges of murder, aggravated assault, using a gun to commit a crime and being a convicted felon with a firearm. He faces life in prison if convicted.
His lead attorney is public defender Sirena Saunders, who asked Jones whether he initially told police looking for witnesses that he didn’t see the shooting or know who was shot.
Jones said he didn’t talk to a police officer until he was summoned to the city’s public safety center to meet a detective. “When I left the house, I left,” he said of the shooting scene. “I wasn’t standing around.”
Prosecutor Ray Daniel said he had a second eyewitness, Charlie Grant, who could corroborate Jones’ account. But Grant denied that, when called to the witness stand Friday. “I don’t know anything about it,” he said.
When asked specific questions about Truitt and the house on 25th Avenue, he repeatedly answered, “I don’t recall.”
Daniel later showed jurors a video recording of Grant’s police interview, showing that at first Grant told investigators he saw Truitt shoot Reynolds, his recollection matching Jones’ testimony.
The trial was expected to last less than a week, but testimony was interrupted Wednesday as Truitt asked that he not be required to attend. He said he suffers from extreme anxiety and could become erratic in front of the jury.
Judge John Martin had attorneys research the issue, and asked that jail medical staff examine Truitt, who returned to court on Thursday and Friday.
Truitt has a history of mental illness, attorneys said. Prosecutors have asked Martin to consider him a repeat offender, citing a felony record dating back to when Truitt was 11 years old.
This story was originally published December 15, 2023 at 9:23 AM.