Zaevion Dobson: Trial Begins For Trio Accused Of Murdering Teen

KNOXVILLE, TN — Two years ago, Zaevion Dobson, a 15-year-old student at Fulton High Schooland promising football player, was killed in Knoxville when he shielded two girls from gunfire as at least 34 gunshots rang out. Now, a trial is underway for three young men accused of murdering him.

The trial began on Tuesday for Christopher Drone Bassett, Kipling Deshawn Colbert and Richard Gregory Williams III in Dobson's shooting death on Dec. 17, 2015. Then-President Barack Obama hailed Dobson's decision as an act of bravery.

Dobson was killed amid a series of connected gang-related shootings in Knoxville that day, Knox County Assistant District Attorney Phil Morton said. Dobson and his friends went to an evening high school basketball game and later gathered on a back porch when the shooters approached. At least four weapons fired bullets that night, the prosecutor said.

"The girls didn't know what was going on," Morton told jurors. "The guys thought it might be gunfire at first when these things started popping off. The girls weren't sure if it was firecrackers or what have you. Zaevion's instinct kicked in, and as a protector, he shielded these girls from gunfire."

Morton said Dobson bled to death on the porch, while the girls were unhurt. The prosecutor cited witness accounts as saying some armed youths in hoodies walked up, said nothing and began shooting — but there was no indication Dobson was targeted. He also described Dobson as a "protector" and added neither he nor his friends had any idea why people were shooting.

Dobson posthumously received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2016 ESPYs. The award recognizes individuals embodying the spirt of Ashe, who dedicated his life to human rights advocacy.

Each of the defendants has his own lawyer at trial.

Kit Rodgers, the lawyer for Williams, asked the jury to "look at the actual evidence; don't get caught up in the story."

"Sometimes it's not the things you're told," said lawyer T. Scott Jones, representing Bassett. "It's the things you're not told."

Morton said the shooting that claimed Dobson's life occurred after two other shootings earlier that day, and that Bassett's aunt and the mother of a Knoxville man named Brandon Perry were shot earlier. Morton added that more gunfire occurred later in the night that resulted in Perry's death.

According to Morton, Bassett later told police that he and Perry had been angry about his aunt being shot and that they'd gone to the neighborhood where Dobson was killed. Morton also said that a handgun found under Williams' seat during a January 2016 traffic stop fired the bullet that killed Dobson, though he wasn't the one driving the car.

Morton cited a rap video that included the three defendants among others as evidence they participated in gang-related activity.

Rhonda Lee, the lawyer representing Colbert, said there was "no connection whatsoever" between those videos and Dobson's shooting.

"They wanted to be rappers," Lee said. "They'd get together and they'd make a rap video. They're not even singing. They're lip-syncing."

Jones said the incidents weren't gang-related and instead stemmed from a dispute between Perry and the father of his girlfriend's child. Perry and Bassett were cousins.

Separately, Rodgers said the evidence connecting Williams to the crime was all circumstantial and that his client's biggest mistake was in his choice of friends.

"I think that's what the evidence is going to show, that Richard Williams made bad choices about the company that he kept," Rodgers said. "He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. That does not make him a murderer. That does not make him criminally responsible."

By STEVE MEGARGEE, AP Sports Writer

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