Macquise Lewis testifies during the trial of Fort Stewart soldier Tevin Biles-Thomas, who is charged with murder, manslaughter and other charges in a New Year’s Eve 2018 shooting that left three people dead. (Cory Shaffer, cleveland.com/TNS)
CLEVELAND, Ohio (Tribune News Service) — Prosecutors on Tuesday rested their case against a U.S. Army soldier charged with murder in the shooting deaths of three people at a New Year’s Eve party in 2018.
The state called dozens of witnesses over five days of testimony in the trial of Tevin Biles-Thomas. Of them, only two identified him as firing shots in a shootout that came after someone attacked Biles-Thomas’ cousin, Devaughn Gibson, at the party in an Airbnb above a pizza shop on Cleveland’s West Side.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Joan Synenberg told jurors on Tuesday to disregard a portion of one of the identifying witness’ testimony. The other took the stand and wavered under cross-examination on whether he saw Biles-Thomas fire a gun at the party.
No DNA evidence ties Biles-Thomas to the shooting. Police did not recover a gun.
Biles-Thomas and his defense attorneys have not signaled if they plan to call any witnesses before the trial concludes with closing arguments.
Biles-Thomas is charged with murder, voluntary manslaughter, felonious assault and perjury in the deaths of Gibson, Delvaunte Johnson and Toshaun Banks. If convicted of the most severe charges, he faces life in prison.
Prosecutors presented during opening statements that they believed either Delvaunte Johnson or Toshaun Banks pushed Gibson up against a refrigerator and Biles-Thomas pulled out his gun. Johnson also had a pistol and the two exchanged gunfire, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said Biles-Thomas shot and killed Johnson and Banks, and Gibbs was shot by bullets from two different guns. Johnson was shot five times in the head, Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner Thomas Gilson testified Monday.
But the picture that emerged from trial testimony was much less concise. Most of the partygoers said they were focused more on reveling or a specific person at the party and did not see the shooting in the kitchen.
Witness IDs shooter, then wavers
The state’s key witness from the party was Macquise Lewis, who testified Tuesday that his back was turned when he heard gunshots. He turned around and saw a man wearing a blue jacket, gold-rimmed glasses and Timberland boots shooting at Johnson and Banks.
“I saw my friends get murdered,” Lewis said on the stand.
Lewis pointed to Biles-Thomas at the defense table and identified him as the gunman.
Lewis testified as part of a plea deal with prosecutors who agreed to reduce a felony tampering with evidence charge Lewis faced for taking Johnson’s gun from the scene to a misdemeanor in exchange for his testimony against Biles-Thomas.
On cross-examination, defense attorney Joe Patituce played video of Lewis from April 2019 where Cleveland police detectives showed him a photo lineup with Biles-Thomas’ photograph in it, and he did not pick him out. Lewis also told detectives that the shooter was wearing a blue or black jean jacket.
Lewis maintained Biles-Thomas was the shooter because of his Timberland boots.
“There was only one person with Timberland boots at that party that night,” he said.
Patituce then showed him a video of two other people wearing Timberland boots as they walked out of the party.
“You didn’t actually see Tevin Biles-Thomas pull the trigger that night. You’ve been going off of what you’ve been told,” Patituce said.
Lewis hesitated before he replied, “I guess so.”
Patituce also attacked Lewis over why he took the gun from the scene of his friend’s shooting. Lewis gave a statement to prosecutors when he pleaded guilty that he picked the bloody gun up from the floor near Johnson’s head and drove from the apartment to Edgewater Park and chucked it into Lake Erie. He said it was a “scared reaction.”
Patituce asked if he did that because the gun was tied to another shooting. Lewis denied it.
Patituce also peppered Lewis with questions about his May 2020 arrest with a 9mm pistol in his car. Lewis was free on bond on his tampering with evidence charge at the time of his arrest in Warrensville Heights, and police filed a felony carrying a concealed weapon charge against him. The case was bound over to the Cuyahoga County grand jury, but prosecutors declined to bring charges against Lewis.
Lewis said that he lied to police at first but that he was telling the truth on Tuesday when he identified Biles-Thomas as the shooter.
“There ain’t no point in lying no more,” Lewis said.
Jurors told to disregard testimony
Lewis’ testimony came after another witness, Jozette Brown, testified on Friday that the shooter pulled a gun from the front pocket of a blue or black “swooshy” jacket that Biles-Thomas was wearing in the security video. A bullet grazed Brown during the gunfight.
She initially identified another person’s photograph but testified that she knew Biles-Thomas was the shooter after seeing his photograph in news stories about the arrest.
Synenberg on Tuesday told the jury that they could not consider as evidence a statement from a witness who claimed the defendant was the shooter because the witness saw it in the news. Synenberg did not name Brown, but the statement mirrored an instruction that Biles-Thomas’ attorneys requested related to Brown’s testimony.
Near mistrial
Tuesday afternoon also brought a motion from Patituce asking Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Joan Synenberg to declare a mistrial. Synenberg previously instructed jurors to disregard statements that Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Gregory Mussman made during opening statements about Biles-Thomas invoking his right to have an attorney with him when he spoke about the killing of his cousin.
She told prosecutors during a sidebar not to mention Biles-Thomas wanting an attorney again.
On Tuesday, Mussman began to read from a grand jury transcript a question in which a prosecutor noted that Biles-Thomas had previously said he wanted an attorney. Patituce objected and asked Synenberg to declare a mistrial. Synenberg spent several minutes outside the courtroom deliberating, and members of the prosecution sat motionless at the table in her absence. She returned and overruled the motion but warned prosecutors that there would be no more mentions of Biles-Thomas invoking his right to an attorney without consequence.
Biles-Thomas’ statements
Biles-Thomas told the grand jurors that he didn’t have a gun that night and didn’t see the shooting either. He said he, Gibson and Mauk had been hanging out all day drinking and had gone to Slyman’s for corned beef sandwiches before Mauk got invited to the party. Biles-Thomas said he drove Mauk in his new Chevrolet Camaro and Gibson drove separately and met them at the party.
Biles-Thomas said he walked into the party, heard gunshots and ran out of the apartment with Mauk. He said he assumed that Gibson had made it out as well but did not try to check up on him that night because he assumed he was with a girl.
He then went back to Georgia the next day because he said he needed to get his Army uniform dry cleaned and prepare for training to become a sergeant.
After the shooting, police obtained a warrant to get a sample of Biles-Thomas’s DNA from him. A Georgia sergeant testified Tuesday that he showed up with a warrant and served it to Biles-Thomas. The sergeant said that Biles-Thomas asked him, “Is this from Cleveland, Ohio? Because I haven’t done anything, Georgia. I mean, I haven’t done anything at all.
Reese also told Biles-Thomas that if he acted in self-defense, he needed to say so. Biles-Thomas maintained he didn’t shoot.
©2021 Advance Local Media LLC
Visit www.cleveland.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
