DES MOINES, Iowa — In court on Wednesday, the now-convicted Starts Right Here shooter Preston Walls told the jury that Bravon Tukes, the alleged getaway driver, had nothing to do with the shooting on Jan. 23, 2023.
Walls answered "no" to the following questions posed by the defense:
- Did you know that you were going to shoot Gionni Dameron and Rashad Carr?
- Did you tell Bravon Tukes you were going to shoot those young men?
- Did you tell Bravon Tukes after you got in his car that you had shot those young men?
- Did you plan that shooting with Bravon Tukes?
Walls addressed every message exchanged between him and Tukes in the days leading up to the shooting, as well as the day of the shooting.
Walls testified that he had been drinking a lot, and messages between him and Tukes were of them both just "venting".
Some of those messages consisted of Tukes and Walls talking about killing OMB gang members, which the two victims were believed to be part of.
Walls testified that the messages meant all he wanted to do was fight and there was never a plan for a shooting.
“Like I said before, we hurt, we angry, we upset, we sad, we sad about Tre passing. On top of that, these people are like laughing at the fact that he’s dead. They’re disrespecting him, like, making a joke out of everything like it was funny to them," Walls said. "And that was just — that just pissed us off. We said, I said, we talked about, we was just talking about it. It’s not, it’s not a plan,” Walls said.
Walls also went on the record to say Tukes had no prior knowledge of the shooting, and Walls didn’t even tell Tukes the shooting happened when he got in his car.
However, when the prosecution had the opportunity to cross-examine Walls, they reminded him that Walls did pull the trigger and questioned the witness more about the events leading up to it.
Prosecutors asked whether the fight Walls wanted ever happened, and Walls said: "No, because Bravon told me to play it cool. He always told me to play it cool, every time.”
Before Walls took the stand, the state filed a motion saying that Walls wasn’t allowed to testify about his argument of self-defense.
However, late in the testimony, Walls said he feared for his life, requiring the court to hold him in contempt.
Walls was the only witness on the stand Wednesday.
The state and defense have reached the end of their witness lists and rested. Jury instructions will begin Thursday morning, followed by closing arguments.