Brothers on trial for Interstate 4 murder of teen
TAMPA, Fla. - It started as a neighborhood beef between a 17-year-old and two brothers that spilled onto Interstate 4 last summer.
On August 24, 2020, prosecutors say, 21-year-old Jaris and 23-year-old Jarkese Youngblood spotted their victim, Ta'Zion Levison, riding in a dark-colored Nissan sedan on the interstate.
One brother pulled out a gun and started shooting,
"The testimony will show that Jaris Youngblood pulled the trigger, firing the fatal shot, and Jarkese Youngblood positioned the car he was driving next to the Nissan so his brother could fire off that fatal shot," explained prosecutor Sheri Maxim.
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Now, one year later, both brothers are on trial for murder.
Shanna Corum, who was driving nearby when it happened, told the jury what she witnessed.
"There were two rounds of shots. The first one was like three pops the second time it was four to five pops," testified Corum.
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But Hillsborough public defender Donna Perry pointed out the state's only eyewitness, who was driving with the victim, at first lied to police about it.
"On the day his best friend was killed, who was there, said ‘I don’t know who did this, I wasn't even, like, paying attention,’" Perry recalled for the jury.
Perry argued that her client, Jaris Youngblood, wasn’t even in the car that day and there is no evidence he was,
"I have the privilege of representing an innocent client and at the end I'm going to ask that you find him not guilty," Perry told jurors.
Prosecutors say the brothers sold the car to a junkyard after the shooting. They face charges of first-degree murder, shooting into a vehicle, and tampering with physical evidence.