Fisk guilty in drive-by – His alibi included smoking pot at time
Ballistics testimony sealed the fate of drive-by shooter Deonray Fisk as jurors found him guilty Friday evening of attempted second-degree murder for shooting into the car of three Hispanic men and wounding one of the victims in the back as they were returning home from Christmas shopping.
Jurors deliberated for just over four hours after hearing two days of testimony, returning around 9 p.m. Friday with guilty verdicts on three counts of attempted second-degree murder, three counts of aggravated assault, and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Their decision means they believed Fisk was the man who pulled alongside the victims on Sparta Highway on the evening of Dec. 22, 2005 and opened fire, wounding back-seat passenger David Estrada when one of the four rounds passed through the cab and hit him in the back. While suggesting Fisk may have exchanged words with the three victims earlier in the Wal-Mart parking lot, no significant motive was ever given.
However, during his testimony at the end of the trial, Fisk denied shooting the men, instead saying he had been smoking marijuana with a friend in the Wal-Mart parking lot and later went to his girlfriend’s house where he spent the night. The friend confirmed his story on the stand but his ex-girlfriend, now in California, could not be found to testify.
‘I never shot anyone,’ Fisk testified, admitting investigators made him mad enough that he wanted to fight them when he was being questioned.
‘You clearly have anger management problems,’ Assistant District Attorney Tom Miner said while cross examining Fisk.
The 27-year-old claimed lawmen leaned on him to admit he was the one who committed the drive-by and also shot into a house near where his mother lived on Spring Valley Road. The questioning, Fisk said, happened after he was taken into custody at a friend’s house where the gun used in the drive-by shooting was also found.
‘Jim Hartman came up to me and said ‘I got enough to put you away for 25 years,’ Fisk said, noting during later questioning he did say he would take responsibility for the Spring Valley incident but that he only said it because he was mad. ‘I was being sarcastic. I never thought I’d be on trial for my life.’
It was the gun found in a house where Fisk was staying that linked the suspect to the crime, even though Fisk denied ever firing the weapon.
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation firearms expert Donald Carmen testified that the bullet and shell casings found at the scene of the drive-by shooting on Sparta Highway were positively fired from the gun found with Fisk. Carmen went on to say there was ‘zero’ chance it was not the same gun despite questions by defense attorney Bud Sharp about varying marks on the bottom of the casing which did not seem the same to him.
‘If I come up with a wrong conclusion, that would be the end of my career,’ Carmen said, noting his results are verified on the microscopic level by an independent testing agency.
The conviction is the second felony conviction for Fisk, who served four years in prison for helping rob who he said was a drug dealer back in 2001.
District Attorney General Lisa Zavogiannis said she is pleased with the verdict and will likely ask the sentences be run consecutively. The chief charge of attempted second-degree murder carries eight to 12 years in prison on each count. Fisk remains held at Warren County Jail awaiting sentencing.