An Odessa burglary suspect who has spent the last 19 months in jail told jurors Wednesday he saw Rondale Gerrod Farris shoot a man to death four years ago and just recently came forward because he wants to get his “conscience clear.”
While Thurman Williams said he’d obviously “jump at the chance” to strike a deal with prosecutors in his burglary case, his primary reason for coming forward is Treginale White’s death keeps replaying in his mind and it’s the right thing to do.
Wednesday was the third day in Farris’ trial in the July 13, 2018, death of White, 41, outside a convenience store near Highway 80 and Eighth Street.
Williams testified that shortly after midnight July 13, 2018 he saw two relatives of Farris arguing with White and White’s brother, Roderick, at Club Tequila or Red Zone on Eighth Street. The two bars are connected and he explained he doesn’t know where one ended and the other began.
He knew three of the men were associated with criminal street gangs and he decided to leave because he sensed something bad was going to happen, Williams said.
After leaving the bar, he stopped at what was then the 7-Eleven at Highway 80 and Eighth Street to get some cigarettes, Williams said. He was sitting outside in his truck to the rear of the store when he heard “hostile arguing” and decided to check it out.
Williams said that as he crouched down slightly he saw the same four men arguing behind White’s distinctive maroon-colored Cadillac. After a couple of minutes, Williams said Farris came walking up quickly, extended his arm and fire four or five shots at Farris.
He left the scene and didn’t speak to anybody about what he’d seen until six or seven months ago, Williams told Assistant District Attorney Melissa Williams.
The murder had been bothering him awhile and after discussing it with his father and sister he decided to ask his lawyer to approach authorities, Williams said. At this point he’s already been in jail for 18 or 19 months for a crime that typically carries a two-year sentence, but he’s still hoping prosecutors will cut him a deal, he said.
Defense attorney Jeff Nicholson repeatedly asked Williams how he could have seen the shooting given that he was crouched down and may have had two cars blocking his view, the victim’s and another witness in the case’s, Claudia Perez.
Nicholson told jurors during opening statements Monday afternoon that authorities arrested the wrong man, but prosecutors are relying heavily on surveillance tapes from the convenience store that show Farris running outside the store and White dropping to the ground seconds later after four gunshots are heard.
Whomever fired the shots is not seen on camera, but Farris can be seen running from the scene along with Christopher George, who was also seen on the surveillance tapes beckoning for Farris to come outside. George, too, is facing a murder charge and is awaiting trial. Authorities have never located the other men they believe were involved in the incident.
Williams is the first witness to testify he actually saw Farris shoot the victim and he insisted his vision was not obscured. He said he could clearly see over the Cadillac’s trunk.
Williams testified he believes White may have been killed because he was a “flashy” guy who dressed well and had a large gold medallion necklace that night. He also acknowledged White’s death may have been related to the fact White was a member of the Bloods criminal street gang and Farris is a member of the Crips.
Witnesses have heard White served time in prison for killing a Crips member in the 1990s, but Williams said he didn’t know that until after White’s death.
Jurors also heard from Barshavia Wallace and Endaisha Loudermill Wednesday. Both women were with Perez the night White died, both at Club Tequila and at the convenience store.
Perez testified Tuesday she didn’t witness any arguments at the bar, but she did witness an argument between White and an unknown man in the store parking lot while her friends were in the store. She said the other man left momentarily and came back armed. She told jurors she and her friends were already pulling out of the parking lot when the shots were fired and she didn’t see who fired the shots.
On Wednesday, Wallace and Loudermill testified they didn’t see any altercations involving White the night he died.
Wallace and Loudermill each testified they stopped at the store to use the restroom and they’d planned to join White at Jaguars Odessa afterward. They testified they were coming back to Perez’s car when she began yelling at them from the car. Loudermill said Perez yelled “They’re fighting, they’re fighting. Let’s go” and Wallace said Perez yelled, “Let’s go! They have a gun!”
As they were climbing in the car, the women said they heard several shots and they took off. After a few seconds, they decided to return to check on White. Both said they were so focused on getting into the car, they didn’t see anyone arguing or anyone with a gun.
Dr. Tasha Greenberg, a deputy Tarrant County medical examiner, said White sustained three gunshot wounds. One grazed the area between his nose and upper lip, one entered a nostril and exited his left cheek and the third entered the top of his head.
Judging from the soot and gunpowder left on his face, one of the shots was fired within less than a foot of White and the other was fired from within one to three feet, Greenberg said. It’s difficult to determine how far the shooter was when he fired the shot that entered into Farris’ head; no soot or gunpowder was found on his head, but he had been wearing a ball cap, she said.
The case is being presided over by visiting Judge Rodney Satterwhite.
The state is expected to call their last witness Thursday morning.
