The trial began today for Victor Trezevant, the second of four men accused of the 2007, on-campus shooting of University of Memphis football player Taylor Bradford.
Trezevant, 24, entered his long-awaited plea of "not guilty" amid a full courtroom at 201 Poplar.
Fellow student Devin Jefferson, who also pled not guilty last year, was convicted on Mother's Day of Bradford's felony murder. He was automatically sentenced to 51 years in state prison.
Bradford was shot in his right side in front of Carpenter Complex at approximately 9:30 p.m. Sept. 30, 2007 when Trezevant and co-conspirators Daeshawn Tate and Courtney Washington, three of Jefferson's high school friends, attempted to rob the 21-year-old lineman of the $7,400 he had won that weekend at Horseshoe Casino in Tunica.
Still in his Lincoln Town Coupe, Bradford, a business major, sped across Central Avenue before losing consciousness heading south on Zach Curlin Street and crashing into a tree.
Investigators never definitively determined who wielded the weapon, a 9mm Luger.
In his own trial, Jefferson implicated Trezevant as Bradford's shooter, but prosecutors said Jefferson's guilt was justified because he set the robbery plan in motion, thereby making him criminally responsible for the actions of others.
Jefferson admitted at the time to coordinating the robbery that resulted in Bradford being shot to death.
The two had been involved in a heated rivalry over a shared girlfriend, but Jefferson maintained he was not present during the robbery and never intended for Bradford to be killed.
Both Tate and Washington are listed as witnesses for what attorneys estimated should be a week-long trial.
Outside the courtroom, Bradford's parents, who attended Jefferson's every trial date last May, said they planned to be in court throughout Trezevant's case as well.
"It's killing me," said his father Jimmie, tugging at the bill of a blue Tigers cap. "Hopefully all of them will be off the street and Memphis will be safer. But my son is still dead."
