By John McCann

jmccann@heraldsun.com; 419-6601

DURHAM — The retrial of Thaddius R. Wright breaks down to simple, plain facts, according to Assistant District Attorney Stormy Ellis.

“This case comes down to three guys, three guns and one plan,” Ellis said on Tuesday during her opening argument.

Wright is charged with assault with a deadly weapon intent to kill inflicting serious injury and first-degree burglary.

The defendant allegedly shot Rueben Garnett Jr. in 2004 at Foxfire Apartments in north Durham.

A jury in October found Wright guilty of those assault and burglary charges. Superior Court Judge Kenneth C. Titus sentenced him to 116 to 149 months in prison. Wright, 27, appealed the ruling. Superior Court Judge Cressie Thigpen Jr. is presiding over Wright’s retrial,

On Nov. 17, 2004, Wright, Jerred D. Thompson and Jarrad L. Bishop said they were going to “to kick somebody’s ass,” and they were going to use guns, according to Ellis.

“Exactly five years from today’s date. Most people were getting ready for turkey,” Ellis said. But Wright and those other two guys sure didn’t have Thanksgiving on their minds, she said.

Defense lawyer Woodrena Baker-Harrell told jurors Wright in fact was with Thompson and Bishop at Foxfire Apartments. But it’s like when your parents would ask if you’d jump off a bridge just because somebody else is doing it, Baker-Harrell explained. Wright on Nov. 17, 2004 was on that proverbial bridge with those guys who had plans for nothing good, she said. But “he decided it was too deep, too high — let me back away,” Baker-Harrell said about her client.

Wright chose to go back to the car in which he arrived with the other guys, his lawyer said.

Shots ultimately erupted at Foxfire Apartments. Durham police Cpl. Stanley McHenry on the witness stand talked about arriving at the crime scene and finding a distressed man with blood coming from his groin area. There were shell casings from gunfire in the apartment. And there was a dog who’d been shot two times and wasn’t moving, McHenry said. Jurors saw a picture of that dog.

Durham police Officer Douglas Rausch on the witness stand recounted an hour-long car chase that stretched from the Guess Road area around Horton Road and Carver Street and eventually onto Interstate 85 into Orange County before circling back to Durham where the car being chased hit another vehicle at North Roxboro and Denfield streets. There were times during the chase when the fleeing car reached speeds ranging from 100 to 115 miles per hour, he said. The officer said he drove slower, between 80 to 85 miles per hour, because he had his police dog in the vehicle.

The driver of the car with the suspects was ejected but didn’t sustain life-threatening injuries, Rausch said. At Ellis’ prompting, Rausch pointed to Wright as the man he took from the backseat of the fleeing car that crashed.

Ellis presented as evidence a gun found on the ground near the crashed car. The assistant district attorney also presented as evidence another gun found on the floorboard of the front passenger’s seat of the car carrying the suspects, and Rausch said the barrel of that weapon was warm, as if it recently had been fired, and the hammer of the gun was cocked with a round in the chamber.

At the crash site, police found three men but only two guns, Ellis said. An officer later recovered a third gun, she said.

On cross-examination, Baker-Harrell got Rausch to confirm that Wright was sitting in the back-right seat of the car that contained the suspects. Baker-Harrell also got the officer to corroborate that the other gun at the crash scene wasn’t warm to the touch and had no bullets in the chamber.

DEFENSE: JURY SELECTIONS ARE ABOUT DOGS, NOT RACE

After accusations of racial jury stacking, Assistant DA Stormy Ellis and defense lawyer Woodrena Baker-Harrell on Tuesday agreed on jury in the retrial of Thaddius R. Wright.

Ellis accused Baker-Harrell of removing white, male prospective jurors.

Baker-Harrell said her maneuvers weren't based on race but on prospective jurors' sensitivities about dogs.

Jurors in this case have heard general talk about a dead dog at the crime scene. Superior Court Judge Cressie Thigpen Jr. will rule later how far discussion about that dog can go.

Ellis during a pretrial hearing told the judge she wants to link Wright to the dog's death to show the defendant's brazenness and intent to kill.

Baker-Harrell said she didn't want anybody on the jury who would be overly sensitive when it comes to harmed animals. And that's why she sought to remove some of the jurors -- not because of race, Baker-Harrell said. Baker-Harrell nixed a black juror who seemed emotional about the death of her dog this year.