NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — It was another emotional day in the murder trial of Caitlyn Kaufman.
Several people had to leave the courtroom today as details of exactly how Kaufman died were shared. The 26-year-old nurse was shot and killed driving to work in December 2020.
The state called six more witnesses to testify on Thursday in front of the jury — one being Dr. Erin Carney, Davidson County deputy chief medical examiner. Carney performed the autopsy on Kaufman’s body on the day of her murder. She said Kaufman died on the scene from an unsurvivable injury.
"The cause of death is a gunshot wound of the left arm continuing into the chest. The manner of death was a homicide," Carney told the jury.
It was during Carney's testimony that Kaufman's family began to get emotional inside the courtroom. Carney had to go into detail about exactly how Kaufman died.
She said one bullet ripped through her left arm and came across her chest, damaging her heart aorta and lungs. She had to remove the bullet that stopped in her right arm. Carney said Kaufman died within seconds or minutes.
The jury was also shown autopsy photos of Kaufman's clothes she was wearing the night of her murder and a photo of her injury. At this moment, her father, other family and friends had to step out of the courtroom.
Her mother stayed seated, but she did begin to cry and hold on to others for support.
Devaunte Hill and James Cowan were arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Both Hill and Cowan pled not guilty to their charges.
The jury did get to hear from the man that helped police make the arrests in this case.
"I don’t know where he was coming from, they were on the interstate. They said the car got on and almost wrecked into them. 'I guess he said, I guess he thought it was somebody else, so he shot up the car,'" said Jacques Merrell-Odom.
Merrell-Odom was cuffed at his ankles, wearing his yellow jail jumpsuit while testifying. He is currently in jail for crimes unrelated to this case.
He told the court that Hill was a childhood friend. Merrell-Odom said days after the murder Hill asked him if they could trade a gun.
It was learned in court the gun was the firearm used to kill Kaufman. Merrell-Odom said he did not know this during the trade until later that night when he told jury Hill showed him a news article on a murder of a nurse saying, "I did this and I f—ed up."
Merrell-Odom said he was told Hill and Cowan committed the crime because Kaufman cut them off in traffic. At that point, Merrell-Odom testified he still had the gun and told Hill he would get rid of it. But after having a conversation with his mother, a former nurse, he said he wanted to do the right thing.
"Talking to my mom, she’s just like, I talk to her about everything. She’s telling me like, 'What would you do if that was me? What would you want someone else to do of that was me.'"
Merrell-Odom told the jury he tried messaging Kaufman’s mother on Facebook messenger, but he said he received no reply. He wasn’t sure if it was the right person. He then said he went to Kaufman’s job at St. Thomas West Hospital to search for her mom to share what he learned.
When that didn’t work, he spoke to the police. He said initially he didn’t tell police he was in possession of the murder weapon until he was able to text Hill in front of police to clear his name of the crime.
"I didn’t feel right having that weapon. I didn’t feel right knowing about it and not saying anything about it and not doing nothing about it."
Merrell-Odom is not in jail related for the crimes in this case, and why he’s in custody was not mentioned in court.
The defense did question him on how some of his answers have changed from the preliminary hearing to trial.
He said it's because he's clean and sober and in a better head space.
The trial will resume at 8:30 a.m. Friday.
Timeline of events
On the evening of December 3, 2020, Caitlyn Kaufman was driving along Interstate 440 on her way to work at Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital when she was shot and killed.
According to Metro Police, a Metro Parks officer had seen a Mazda SUV on the right shoulder against the guard rail and assuming the driver had crashed, he approached to help. Inside they found Kaufman, who had died from a gunshot wound.
Investigators said there were bullet holes in the window of the car. They believe the bullets were fired into the SUV.
Detectives said six rounds were fired into the vehicle.
A week later, on December 11, then 21-year-old Devaunte L. Hill was taken into custody and charged with criminal homicide.
READ: Suspect arrested in Nashville nurse's murder had violent history
A day later, a second suspect, James Edward Cowan, also known as James Lillard was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
In January 2021, a witness testified that he heard one of the suspects confess to killing Kaufman and said the suspect claimed they shot the nurse because she may have cut them off on I-440.
