Jazmine Barnes: Accused gunman denies involvement in fatal shooting that shook the nation
An attorney for Larry Woodruffe says he was nowhere near the scene when the 7-year-old girl was shot.
Larry Woodruffe, the alleged trigger man in the fatal shooting of Jazmine Barnes, 7, denies any involvement in the murder that rankled the nation. He claims he was nowhere near the scene on Dec. 30, according to Houston ABC affiliate KTRK.
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During a court appearance Thursday, Lisa Andrews, Woodruffe’s attorney, pointed the finger at his client’s co-defendant, Eric Black Jr.
Both men are both charged with capital murder in Jazmine’s death, which occurred during a drive-by shooting in a parking lot. The shooting was reportedly a case of mistaken identity, with the shooting coming as retaliation for an earlier fight that involved a rival, the report said.
Woodruffe was arrested Saturday on an unrelated drug charge. The capital murder charge was filed Tuesday afternoon during Jazmine’s funeral.
A tipster led investigators to Black and Woodruffe after a little over a weeklong search. Black confessed to being the getaway driver and quickly implicated Woodruffe as the shooter.
Woodruffe blamed Black, saying he is the one who shot up the car carrying Jazmine. But Andrews implied that Black may have cut a deal to implicate her client.
“My experience is that people have a big motive to get themselves out of hot water,” Andrews told NBC News. “It is also my experience, after twenty years of doing criminal law on both sides, that shooters don’t give up their gun. And that gun he led the cops to was at his house, not my client’s.”
Authorities say that Woodruffe’s phone records put him “in close proximity” to the scene, according to court documents.
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On was posted after the deadly shooting of the co-defendants. In a photo on Woodruffe’s now-deleted Instagram page, it shows Woodruffe flashing a handful of cash while Black is throwing up gang signs.
Houston Police Officers Union President Joe Gamaldi tweeted on Tuesday: “There are too many gangs in Houston. We must expand the Texas Anti-Gang Task Force in Houston to clean our streets of this trash and restore safety.”
