Gang member testifies in murder trial
NEW BOSTON, Texas — An LCB gang member took the stand Tuesday in the murder trial of Cedric Deshun Alexander and identified Alexander as the shooter in the murder of Jermaine “Bubba” Aldridge in a Texarkana Chili’s restaurant parking lot on Dec. 30, 2020.
Timothy Hardy, who is charged with engaging in organized criminal activity, choose to answer questions about his LCB involvement from First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp despite Judge Bill Miller reminding Hardy he had the right to plead the Fifth Amendment in order not to incriminate himself.
“Is this the person?” asked Crisp as she motioned to the defendant in the courtroom. “Yes ma’am,” Hardy testified. Alexander, 33, of Wall, Mississippi, is on trial in Bowie County’s 5th District Court. He is facing a capital murder charge and multiple other charges of organized criminal activity for his alleged part in the deaths of Aldridge and Joseph Hawkins.
Alexander allegedly traveled with Cornell Brown from Memphis, Tennessee, to Texarkana to carry out the hits for LCB members, according to prosecutors. Crisp and Assistant District Attorney Katie Carter are prosecuting the case for the state. Alexander is represented by attorneys Tabitha Branch and Jeff Harrelson.
Alexander faces life in prison if convicted. Hardy testified Tuesday he did not know Alexander’s name the day Aldridge was killed. He only knew him as one of two men in the vehicle. Hardy also testified LCB member Von Abraham provided the weapon to the men from Memphis “to kill Bubba.”
Hardy testified he knew Aldridge for about nine years and they were friends. He testified LCB turned against Aldridge over money stolen from LCB leader Courtney Hope’s house. He testified he knew of plans to have Aldridge killed that day and was at Chili’s with about eight or nine LCB members.
“Everyone was in there at the time, ordering food and drinks,” Hardy said.
Hardy testified he left Chili’s before the shooting. He was not charged in Aldridge’s murder.
During cross examination, Branch questioned Hardy why he had recently “developed a conscience” and if it had anything to do with his outstanding charge in Bowie County.
Crisp asked Hardy if he was acting upon the advice of his attorney, and he said he was.
“As for your conscience, how many people left Chili’s that day,” Crisp asked.
Hardy said no one else had left the restaurant prior to the shooting.
Hardy testified he started hanging out with LCB and became a member in about 2008. He identified Hope and Van Grissom as leaders of LCB.
“They basically were the heads. They came with the ideas, and everything was structured under them,” he testified.
Earlier Tuesday, a Tennessee woman charged with murder in Texarkana, Arkansas, testified that she overheard conversations between her husband and Alexander about Aldridge’s death.
Starlar Brown and her husband, Cornell Brown, are both charged in Miller County with the death of Keith Mcfadden in September 2022. Cornell Brown is also charged with felonies in Texarkana, Texas.
Under questioning by Crisp, Starlar Brown testified she heard the men talking about Aldridge being shot between two cars and the motive was over “money stolen or taken or not paid back.”
Starlar Brown testified Tuesday morning she met her husband in June 2020 and met Alexander through her husband in September 2020.
“My husband said they had grew up together,” Starlar Brown said.
She testified she didn’t know anyone in Texarkana but that Cornell Brown began talking about people in Texarkana in the fall of 2020.
Starlar Brown said Cornell Brown was gone for a few days at the end of December 2020 and returned with money he did not have before he left. She also testified he gave her $2,500 when he returned and bought himself a new car.
In July 2021, Cornell Brown went out of town again for a few days. When he returned home, he was “scratched up really bad, his feet were cut and bruised, and he was wearing clothes that were too big,” Starlar Brown testified.
She told Crisp she found out that her husband had been arrested while he was gone.
Starlar Brown was not in Texarkana when Mcfadden was killed but was charged with capital murder due to her alleged actions regarding the crime.
Starlar Brown told Crisp she had provided documents to police that were not true.
“You paid the price for that didn’t you?” Crisp asked.
Much of Tuesday’s testimony centered on the three crimes that took place on July 15, 2021, in Texarkana, Texas, and Nash, Texas. A man was robbed at gunpoint that morning in Texarkana. That was followed shortly by the shooting of Joseph Hawkins on West Third Street in Texarkana. That crime was followed by a break-in at the home of Hawkins’ girlfriend in Nash. The suspects fled from the scene of the breakin.
“A robbery, then a shooting, then a burglary. We knew we had a problem,” a Texarkana, Texas, narcotics officer testified. The narcotics investigator responded to the scene on Cantrell Street and followed a trail that resulted in him finding a shoe that matched the shoe one of the suspects was wearing. An identification card inside the shoe belonged to Cornell Brown.
Also on Tuesday, Texarkana Texas Police Department Gang Administrator Aaron Lewis testified about his interaction with the LCB gang over the last 10 years. The gang started as Little Cuz Boys and then rebranded themselves as Loyalty Cash Business or LCB, the officer testified.
He described them as “large-scale narcotics traffickers” who had eventually started delegating others to commit crimes and “create insulating layers” between them and the crimes committed.