NEW BOSTON, Texas -- The state rested its case Wednesday afternoon in the capital murder trial of a man accused of killing another while robbing him of THC vaping cartridges.
Kristopher "Flip" Wilson, 26, is one of two men charged in the Dec. 27, 2020, death of Chase Porier. Porier, 27, was shot in the neck and died of his wound in his home on Forest Circle in the Liberty Eylau area of Bowie County before first responders could arrive. Wilson's co-defendant, Brandon "BB" Parkman, 19, is scheduled for trial in June.
Jurors heard Tuesday from an eyewitness who said Wilson was looking through a box of THC cartridges, known as "carts," when he turned, pulled a pistol and shot Porier. Dewayne Terry testified that Wilson and a second man took cartridges and his and Porier's cell phones before leaving in a small cobalt blue car with a black bumper that didn't match.
Terry testified that he and Porier were in the business of selling the cartridges from Porier's home. THC is the active substance found in marijuana.
Wednesday the jury heard from Dallas Medical Examiner Tracy Dyer M.D. Dyer testified under questioning by Assistant District Attorney Randle Smolarz that Porier was shot in the center of his neck and that the bullet traveled downward, severing a large artery. Dyer said Porier would have struggled to breathe in the last minutes of his life.
"If I thought it was accidental, I would have ruled it an accident," Dyer testified in response to questioning from Texarkana lawyer Derric McFarland regarding whether the shooting could have been unintentional.
Dyer said stippling around the wound on Porier's neck is indicative of a gun fired from a short distance away, such as three feet.
Bowie County Sheriff's Office Investigator Scott Sartor testified under questioning by Assistant District Attorney Bradley Akins that after developing Wilson as a suspect, he and McCarver went to a house in Cass County, Texas, thought to be occupied by a girlfriend of Wilson's. When the investigators arrived at the address, they saw a small blue car with a black bumper parked outside.
In the company of two Cass County Sheriff's Office deputies, Sartor and McCarver went to the front entrance. Wilson answered the door, holding a vaping pen in his hand, Sartor testified.
Sartor said Wilson gave officers consent to search the house and "volunteered that he had been there," referring to Porier's home at the time of the shooting.
THC cartridges allegedly like those taken from Porier's residence the night of the murder were found beneath a mattress. A bright pink handgun with an extended magazine was recovered from a dresser drawer.
"There was a dark-colored stain on the gun," Sartor testified.
Also collected were a pair of Wilson's boots and a coat matching a description given by the eyewitness.
Sartor and McCarver testified that Wilson claimed another man named "Trey" whom he had met in a park was the one who shot Porier. In a video clip of an interview with Wilson in Cass County the day after the shooting, Wilson admits he was present when the shooting occurred and admits to taking Terry's and Porier's cell phones.
In the video, Wilson claims he had money with him and intended to pay for vaping cartridges when "Trey" shot Porier. Investigator Chris Allison testified that in a third interview, Wilson admitted to throwing a cell phone out of his car window after the shooting. With an approximate location, Allison found a phone on the side of a highway in Cass County that belonged to Terry.
Under cross-examination, McCarver testified that Wilson did have cash on him at the time of his arrest the day after the shooting.
Two women who were friends with Wilson and Parkman testified that the two defendants came to a birthday gathering at a residence not far from Porier's the evening of the shooting but left for a short time. The women said Parkman, who they called "BB," "didn't look right," when he returned later.
Nathan Tunnel, a firearms examiner with the Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Lab in Tyler, Texas, testified that the bullet recovered from Porier's body was too deformed to make a determination regarding whether it was fired from the pink gun recovered from Wilson's home.
Amber Moss, a DNA analyst with the crime lab in Garland, Texas, testified that the stain observed on the pink gun by law enforcement was blood and that it "most likely" contained a mixture of Wilson's and Porier's DNA within a high degree of statistical probability.
Moss said a stain from Wilson's left boot also "most likely" was a mixture of Wilson's and Porier's DNA as was a stain collected from the coat taken from Wilson's home.
After the state rested its case Wednesday afternoon, 102nd District Judge Jeff Addison placed the jury in an evening recess with instructions to return to the Bowie County courthouse Thursday morning to begin hearing testimony from witnesses for the defense.
If convicted of capital murder, Wilson faces life without parole as the state is not seeking the death penalty.