Man accused of murder tried in first Fayette County Circuit Court trial since COVID-19
Jurors in a socially-distant courtroom heard evidence Tuesday in the case of a man accused in the violent shooting death of a Lexington woman in 2016.
Jarvis Garrett, 28, is charged with murder in connection with the death of 46-year-old Stephanie Mullins, who was found dead on Aug. 7, 2016 behind an apartment building on Cross Keys Road.
Garrett was charged in the case in 2018 after DNA found on Mullins’ hands was found to have matched Garrett, a prosecutor said in opening arguments Tuesday.
Jury trials in circuit court were suspended for months after the outbreak of COVID-19 began. Garrett’s trial was the first in Fayette County Circuit Court to move forward since the suspension, and a number of precautions were in place.
The jury selection process took all day Monday, with potential jurors being called in in shifts rather than all at once. By Tuesday morning, the selected jury was spread out in what would usually be the audience area of the courtroom to hear opening arguments and the first witnesses called by prosecutors.
Because of the set up for social distancing, family members of Garrett and Mullins were unable to be in the courtroom and watched proceedings through a live stream video feed.
Each witness that took the stand Tuesday was asked to exchange their face mask for a provided clean face shield so they could be heard by jurors.
Jurors first heard from the commonwealth’s attorney’s office, who said that the DNA evidence and video evidence would show that Mullins was killed by Garrett. But defense attorney Daniel Whitley argued that Garrett is innocent, and that the DNA was not enough to convict him.
During the opening statements, assistant commonwealth’s attorney Tressa Root gave disturbing details about how Mullins was killed.
Mullins was found behind some tall grass behind the apartment building on Cross Keys Road, in the Wolf Run Park area. She had been shot once in the head, and her killer had also put the gun in her vagina and fired, Root said. A projectile was recovered from Mullins’ diaphragm.
Garrett’s defense attorney, Daniel Whitley, told jurors that just because there was a DNA hit connecting Garrett to the case, it didn’t mean they could convict. When investigators got the DNA hit connecting Garrett to the case, they got “tunnel vision” and ignored evidence that could prove Garrett’s innocence, Whitley said.
A man who lived in the area heard gunshots and a woman scream on the night of the shooting and called 9-1-1. In the call, he told a dispatcher that he saw a shirtless Black or Hispanic man running from the area with a gun. When he testified in court Tuesday, the witness said he’d been scared when he heard the shots and got low for a few seconds or minutes before calling for help.
Multiple times during the proceedings Tuesday, Whitley pointed out that the area where the shooting occurred is home to a lot of men who are Black or Hispanic.
Mullins died at the scene of the shooting. The first responding Lexington police officer, Joshua Crowe, found Mullins unclothed and unresponsive behind the apartment building. He tried to talk to her, but she was unresponsive and bleeding. Firefighters then responded to the scene and confirmed she was dead.
Mullins left behind five children and six grandchildren, her daughter testified in court Tuesday.
The trial is expected to continue this week. The jurors in the case will deliberate after hearing more witnesses and closing arguments from attorneys on both sides of the case.
This story was originally published August 18, 2020 at 3:56 PM.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Jarvis Garrett is 26 years old. He is 28 years old.
