Convicted gang member’s punishment trial continues
NEW BOSTON, Texas — The fatal shootings of Jermaine Aldridge in 2020 and Joseph Hawkins in 2021 were the focus of testimony Thursday in the punishment trial of an LBC gang member.
Van Dmarcreus Grissom, 34, pleaded guilty Tuesday in engaging in organized criminal activity for money in Bowie County’s 202nd District Court. Jurors will decide Grissom’s punishment, and they began hearing testimony on Wednesday. Punishment could be anywhere from 15 to 99 years or life in prison.
First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp and Assistant District Attorney Bradley Akins are trying Grissom’s case for the state. Prosecutors are trying to prove Aldridge’s killing was a murder-for-hire plot involving the LCB gang and that Hawkins’ death was also caused by LCB members. The motive is believed to have been allegedly stolen drug money.
Grissom is represented by attorney Heath Hyde.
On Thursday, Texarkana, Texas, Police Detective Cliff Harris testified detectives had spent a “significant amount of time” investigating the LCB gang and connected them to Aldridge’s death early on.
“We thought it was an inside hit,” Harris testified. “There were multiple people coming forward, some of them anonymously, who were telling us it was a hit.”
Shantriece Hunt testified Thursday morning the she was meeting a friend at Chili’s restaurant on the afternoon of Dec. 30, 2020. When she pulled into the parking lot, she recognized Jermaine “Bubba” Aldridge talking on his cellphone outside the restaurant. Hunt testified she recognized Aldridge because she had gone to school with him.
She also saw another man getting into a gray Volkswagen with an obscured license plate.
“As he was pulling out, I was backing in. He pulled in front of where Bubba was standing. He yelled out to get his attention and shot him,” Hunt testified.
She testified she saw the shooter rest the gun on the window of his vehicle and that he fired one shot. Hunt also testified she saw the man get out of his car, look at Aldridge on the ground, get back in the car and that he “sped off.”
Hunt also testified that another man ran out of Chili’s, grabbed something off Aldridge and then ran back inside.
Harris testified that Charles Louis Madlock, who is facing a murder charge in Bowie County in a 2009 homicide, is also charged with witness tampering for allegedly taking Aldridge’s cellphone from him at the scene of the crime.
Texarkana, Texas, Police Officer Zack Gilley also responded to the shooting in the Chili’s parking lot.
Gilley testified he turned Aldridge over to check for wounds and a found a “penetrating injury” in the upper back between the shoulder blades.
Footage from Gilley’s body camera showed several men, including one identified as Grissom, standing near Chili’s.
Crisp asked Gilley if any of the men asked him questions about Aldridge’s condition. Gilley testified they did not.
Hunt also testified about the men who stood by as she called 911.
“Why were they just standing there and not trying to help him?” she asked Crisp.
The longtime girlfriend of Joseph “Jay Hawk” Hawkins also testified Thursday under questioning by Crisp that her house has been shot at since Hawkins was shot and she has feared for her life.
Ashton Jackson testified she and Hawkins were together for 15 years and have a son together. Hawkins was sitting in his vehicle outside his friend’s auto body shop when he was shot on July 15, 2021. He was paralyzed and died from complications in November 2022, Jackson testified. His manner of death was ruled a homicide.
Texarkana Texas Police Department Crime Scene Investigator Marc Sillivan testified Hawkins had been shot in the neck and his spinal cord had been severed.
Hawkins had hung out at the body shop more since he was laid off from his job, Jackson said. Crisp asked Jackson if the shop was a “known hangout” for LCB members, and Jackson testified it was. She also testified that some LCB members “had a problem” with Hawkins.
Kerry Davenport, the owner of the auto body shop, testified Thursday morning there had been a longstanding feud between LCB members and another group that had “originated from a Texas and Arkansas beef.” Davenport also testified that members of the LCB gang had “longtime problems” with Hawkins.
Davenport testified he heard “a pop” and found Hawkins unresponsive in his car with blood on his face.
“His window was down. I felt like he had to have had a conversation with someone,” Davenport testified.
Testimony continues today at the Bowie County Courthouse.