Defense attorney: There is no chance that the suspects in Asia Poole’s death will be convicted of murder

The lawyer for one of the four suspects charged in the livestreamed shooting death of Birmingham mother Asia Poole said there was no chance a jury would convict any of them of murder.

Lawyers for the four young suspects – a woman and three men, including a 17-year-old – claim their clients fired their weapons in self-defense that night after seeing four armed men – including the victim’s brother – confront them.

They also claimed that the first shot may have come from Poole’s brother, who was armed with a Draco.

“Based on what we’ve heard, in my honest, professional opinion, in 32 years of doing this, there is no way a jury would ever convict any of these people,” said attorney Darryl Bender, 20 represented for a long time. old Aacoreyah Denae Woods.

“There is evidence that on the other side of the passage upstairs (on the apartment building floor) there were three armed men and this young lady’s brother who had the best motive in the world,” Bender said.

“His younger sister had just been beaten up; Her car was stolen by the woman who beat her up.”

“The law does not require that these people allow him to shoot and then defend himself,” the lawyer said.

“What a jury will hear is that his sister was beaten up, he’s armed, three other men were armed and these people start shooting and running. “It was self-defense all day.”

Woods and three others are charged with murder in the Aug. 20 shooting of Poole and attempted murder in the wounding of Poole’s best friend, Damarion Rankins, who was shot in the thigh.

The other defendants are Justin Jamond “June Bug” Hendrix, 20, Taylor “Paper Route Tay,” McCloud, 22, and a 17-year-old male.

They are also charged with the attempted murder of Poole’s best friend, Damarion Rankins, who was shot in the hip.

Several are also accused of firing a firearm into an occupied building containing two apartments that were hit by gunfire that night.

Janiyah Hendrix, 19, who fought with Poole before the shots rang out, is charged with first-degree carjacking after authorities said she fled the chaotic crime scene in Poole’s car.

Janiyah Hendrix and Justin Hendrix are siblings. Justin Hendrix is ​​also charged with conspiracy to commit murder in an unrelated shooting. In this case no one was injured.

The four murder suspects appeared before Jefferson County District Judge William Bell on Wednesday for a preliminary hearing on the charges. When the hearing concluded, Bell referred all cases to a grand jury for indictment consideration.

Bell also granted Woods $250,000 bail with a condition of electronic monitoring. Prosecutors denied bail for Woods.

Hendrix and McCloud remain held without bond.

The 17-year-old suspect will have a bail hearing on Thursday.

Poole, mother of a young daughter, died from a single gunshot wound to the back. The father of Poole’s 4-year-old daughter died weeks before Poole’s murder.

The shooting happened on Gallant Drive at the Monarch Ridge Apartments around 10 p.m. on August 20th.

Poole’s acquaintances said there was an ongoing dispute between her and Janiyah Hendrix over a man.

The fight between Poole and Janiyah Hendrix began near Poole’s vehicle in the parking lot. They eventually got separated, but it started again in the doorway of the building where Poole lived.

The fight and subsequent shootout were captured on Facebook Live videos. Surveillance cameras — including cameras located in every doorway of the large apartment complex — also captured some of the chaos that night and were recovered by the Metro Area Crime Center.

Birmingham Homicide Detective John Finke was the only witness at Wednesday’s hearing.

Finke testified that when he arrived at the scene of the Monarch Ridge accident that night, “there were shell casings everywhere” and Poole lying dead in her airlock.

According to police, more than 160 cartridges were found. The shell casings recovered from the crime scene came from four weapons of different calibers.

Finke said he initially received nicknames from those involved and was later able to identify them by their real names. With the help of witnesses and the surviving victim, he was able to identify those seen in the videos.

Finke said Justin Hendrix is ​​seen in the videos wearing a black hoodie and black ski mask and is armed with two weapons – a Draco and an AR-15 pistol.

McCloud was dressed all in black and armed with a gun, he said.

Woods was wearing denim shorts, a brown shirt and was armed with a Draco that had an extended magazine. At one point, the detective said, she also wore a ski mask.

The video, Finke testified, showed that the 17-year-old suspect – who was seen shirtless in the videos – fired the first shot toward the wind tunnel as Janiyah Hendrix fled the scene in Poole’s vehicle.

It also showed Woods, McCloud and Justin Hendrix firing their weapons. All four shooters, Finke said, fired their weapons into the doorway where Poole was found dead.

Police had previously said that at least two people returned fire after the four suspects fired.

Finke said about seven or eight videos were collected from that night. None of them, he said, showed anyone firing from the wind tunnel and said no bullet casings were found there.

One of the Facebook Live videos came from a cellphone that was thrown into the wind tunnel as the shooting began and captured minutes of gunfire.

In that video, the owner was seen saying “No, Romeo, no” just before the shooting began.

She later told investigators that she told him not to run into the parking lot and into the crowd. She also said Poole’s brother did not fire any shots.

Defense attorneys claim that the audio recording of this recording clearly indicates that the first shot was fired in the immediate vicinity of this cell phone and not from the parking lot.

They also determined that Poole was shot in the back while she was likely looking out into the parking lot, suggesting the fatal shot may have come from one of the gunmen standing next to her in the alleyway.

Finke testified that he spoke twice with Poole’s brother, who twice failed to show up for scheduled interviews with detectives.

The brother did not respond to an earlier request for comment from AL.com.

Police are still waiting for ballistics tests to determine what type of bullet killed Poole.

Finke said during his testimony that as part of the investigation they collected a Draco, which was found about a mile from the crime scene along with a black mask and gloves.

He said investigators still have not identified three of the masked men brandishing weapons that night.