Background
In August 2022, Derrick choked, punched, and assaulted his girlfriend (Victim 1) in their home. Police responded, documented injuries, and Victim 1 obtained an order of protection. Following the assault, Derrick sent Victim 1 numerous threatening text messages over several days, including threats to shoot her in the head, kill her with an AK-47, and statements like “Either we gonna be together or I’m killing us both” and “If you don’t want to deal with me, you going to be dealing with violence.”
Approximately 2.5 months later, on November 5, 2022, Victim 1 called her grandmother (Victim 2) requesting help to leave Derrick’s home. As Victim 2 arrived to help, Victim 1 called 911 to report that Derrick was armed, abusive, and threatening to kill her and her mother. During the 911 call, Derrick shot both women multiple times within nine seconds. Victim 1 was shot twice—in the left armpit and right back—and died from injuries to her lung, heart, and liver. Victim 2 was shot twice and died from injuries to her liver, stomach, and small intestine.
Derrick’s account at trial differed substantially from the 911 call and physical evidence. He claimed Victim 1 had the gun and fired at him, hitting her mother instead, and that he shot her in self-defense. A detective testified that Derrick’s timeline was inconsistent with the nine-second window between gunshots, that the ballistics contradicted his account, and that his physical size advantage over the 4’10”, 117-pound Victim 1 undermined the struggle narrative.
The court held that joinder of the August 2022 domestic assault charges with the November 2022 homicide charges was proper. Although separated by two months and involving a different victim in one count (Victim 2), the offenses were connected and part of a common scheme. All charges involved domestic violence acts against Victim 1 across a 12-week span at the same location. The threatening text messages between the incidents and Derrick’s fatal shooting of both victims while threatening Victim 1 demonstrated a continuing pattern to control her and prevent her from leaving the relationship.
The court further held that denial of Derrick’s motion to sever was not an abuse of discretion. Derrick failed to make a particularized showing of substantial prejudice. The evidence regarding each offense was sufficiently simple and distinct—the August incident had separate video and photographic evidence, while the November incident involved the 911 call and police body camera footage. The jury received instructions to consider each count separately and demonstrated its ability to distinguish evidence by acquitting Derrick of the endangering-the-welfare-of-a-child charge while convicting him on other counts.
The court rejected Derrick’s argument that combining the “strangling” allegation with the shooting incidents had an inflammatory effect, finding this conclusory without specific factual support. Additionally, evidence of the prior August assault would have been admissible at a separate murder trial to show motive and intent, particularly where Derrick raised a self-defense claim, so no additional prejudice resulted from joinder.