A New Orleans police officer’s body worn camera recorded a frantic Widner “Flow” Degruy III screaming on the perimeter of yellow crime scene tape surrounding a shot-up car that contained the bodies of his friend and friend’s brother on Bright Drive in New Orleans East on Memorial Day 2015.
“Theatrics” is how prosecutors described Degruy’s reaction to the scene at the start of his trial Tuesday (April 2) on two second-degree murder charges connected to the May 25, 2015, shooting that killed brothers Kendred and Kendrick Bishop.
Assistant District Attorneys Alex Calenda and Irena Zajickova alleged Degruy was one of two gunmen who killed the brothers. Degruy’s defense attorney, Gary Wainwright, questioned why a successful musician with a budding rap career would kill a friend he’d recorded music with and that man’s brother.
Degruy was signed to Lil Wayne’s Young Money record label and was scheduled to leave town to go on tour the morning of the murders, Wainwright said.
The Bishop brothers – 18-year-old Kendred, who went by the name Kirby, and 22-year-old Kendrick, a rap artist signed to Degruy’s record label who performed as MuddyCupBuddy – were gunned down inside a black Kia sedan in the 4800 block of Bright Drive around 5:45 a.m.
The motive, Calenda said in opening statements, was retaliation for Degruy’s belief the brothers stole guns and a significant amount of cash from his vehicle a week earlier.
The second accused gunman, Jonathan “Lil Joe” Evans, pleaded guilty in 2015 to manslaughter in exchange for a 20-year sentence. Evans has cooperated with investigators and is expected to testify against Degruy.
Key witness
Wainwright warned jurors they should listen critically to testimony from Evans, a now 22-year-old who starting selling drugs at age 12 and pleaded guilty to participating in two murders that left three dead.
Evans told investigators he was with Degruy and the Bishop brothers at Harrah’s casino a week before they were killed. When he and Degruy left, they discovered the window to Degruy’s vehicle was smashed in and the $8,000 in cash and two guns were missing.
Calenda said people in the area told him two guys did it, and Degruy assumed the Bishop brothers were to blame.
“Thus, in Mr. Degruy’s mind they had to die,” Calenda said.
Wainwright said that story was a lie. They never went to Harrah’s, he said, and police didn’t check the casino’s security tapes to corroborate Evans’ story.
The night Evans claimed the four were at Harrah’s, Wainwright said Evans and Degruy attended a Dipset concert at the Howlin’ Wolf, then went to an afterparty at Republic.
Evans saw Kendred Bishop and told Degruy, “he’s one of my ops,” which Wainwright explained meant was an opponent whom Evans intended to kill. Degruy told Evans he was mistaken, that Bishop is “living the right life,” Wainwright said.
A week later, on the day before the Bishop brothers were killed, Degruy, Evans and two others drove to Mobile for a Lil Wayne concert. Kendred and Kendrick Bishop drove separately to the show in a rental car – the black Kia Cadenza they were killed in.
Degruy and Evans rode back to New Orleans with the Bishops.
“Think about this,” Wainwright said. “You got those guys all the way in Mobile, Ala., and you’re planning a murder. You don’t take them out of the car on the side of the road in Mobile and kill them. You don’t kill them in Mississippi. You don’t kill them in Slidell. You take them around the corner from your mother’s house?”
Person of Interest
NOPD Officer Joseph Chase heard Degruy yelling and saw him running toward the homicide scene around 6 a.m., he testified. Degruy said the Bishop brothers had just dropped him off at his mom’s house, and were going to the corner store to get a cold drink. Degruy’s statements were recorded on Chase’s body worn camera and played for the jury.
He told Chase he was with the brothers in Mobile the night before at a Lil Wayne concert, and another person was in the car with them. Chase said he felt Degruy was implying the other person in the car had something to do with the shootings.
Degruy then is heard on the video saying, “Sir, that’s my (expletive) phone right there. I don’t know why my phone right there.” Chase said he kept a close eye on Degruy, who he considered a person of interest at that point, as Degruy was “testing the security of the perimeter” to try to get his iPhone out of the crime scene tape.
Chase said Degruy, who identified himself as Aaron Parker, continued to talk “freely and willingly,” and his story changed over time. Initially, Chase said Degruy acted as though he discovered the murders when he walked up on the crime scene investigation. Degruy later said he heard gunshots, then ran to the scene and back to his mom’s house where he told her to call the police, Chase said.
Calenda said Degruy gave another conflicting statement in an interview with homicide Detective Rob Barrere at NOPD headquarters.
‘He’s not a murderer’
Wainwright told jurors in opening statements Degruy has already pleaded guilty to the crimes he committed in connection to the Bishop murders: obstruction of justice in a homicide investigation and conspiracy to obstruct justice in a homicide.
“He obstructed justice,” Wainwright said. “He didn’t tell the police the truth about the people who murdered his friends. But he’s not a murderer.”
Evans also has pleaded guilty in the case, along with Degruy’s girlfriend, Jamya Brady, and his mom, Chantell Edwards. Both women are awaiting sentencing.
According to testimony Tuesday, Brady was spotted driving around the crime scene with Evans in the back seat. Edwards got rid of the assault rifle and handgun used in the murders after she found them on Degruy’s bed under a pile of clothes, Calenda said.
“Stupidity, arrogance and ego pervade this whole case,” Calenda said. “He doesn’t share the stage with Lil Wayne anymore. He’s now sharing the stage with the state of Louisiana. That adoring audience he built up through his music … is now a jury of his peers to decide whether he will spend the rest of his life in Angola, a long way away from the lights and fame of the rap game.”
via nola.comhttps://www.nola.com
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