Was it murder or selfdefense?
Attorneys offer different accounts of deadly clash
Charley Hawkins said her arguments with on-and-off boyfriend Lahquann Grady were so volatile that she needed to grab knives to get to him leave her apartment at 297 Orange St.
On July 5, it didn’t work. That morning, Grady used one of her steak knives to fatally stab 29-year-old Rashaun Byrd, a man visiting the apartment. Two of Hawkins’ friends were also there.
“I just started yelling, ‘What did you do?’” Hawkins, 22, testified on the first day of Grady’s second-degree murder trial in Albany County Court.
Hawkins cried as she recalled the moments in which Byrd, known as “Hothead,” was killed.
“I was talking to Hothead — ‘Please don’t die!’” Hawkins testified.
Byrd’s mother, who uses a wheelchair, watched from the gallery, where she was surrounded by supporters.
Albany County prosecutors allege Grady, 21, stabbed Byrd in the heart in a jealous rage.
Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Mccanney said Hawkins and Grady, who began seeing one another in September 2017, fought regularly.
“Unfortunately, he didn’t stay away,” Mccanney told jurors. “The defendant refused to accept the fact that he and Charley were not together anymore and the toxicity of the relationship only increased.”
Lee Kindlon, Grady’s attorney, told jurors his client killed Byrd in selfdefense. During his cross-examination of Hawkins, she acknowledged she first grabbed the knife and swung the weapon
at Grady with the intention of cutting him.
At the time of Byrd’s death, a court order barred Grady from the home or being near Hawkins because of an June incident in which Grady kicked in the door to the apartment because he saw Hawkins braiding another man’s hair, the prosecutor said.
But despite that incident, Hawkins testified that in the hours leading up to the killing of Byrd, she and Grady watched the July 4 fireworks together at Empire State Plaza.
Hawkins said she and Byrd were both intoxicated.
Hawkins said she had plans to hang out with Byrd later that night. After leaving the fireworks, she told Grady she did not want him to stay over.
When she went home, she hung around with Byrd, as well as friends Kiah Upchurch and Kira Williams. They drank wine (Hawkins said she also smoked pot) and were enjoying themselves when Grady began to message Hawkins and one of the friends demanding to know Hawkins’ whereabouts, the prosecutor said.
They told Grady that Hawkins was not home, Mccanney said. Hawkins said Byrd took the phone and texted Grady — who would have thought the message was coming from Hawkins — that she was hanging out at Albany High School.
But that text contradicted an earlier response from Hawkins that she was in Colonie, Hawkins said.
The prosecutor said Grady kicked in the window of the apartment at 2:15 a.m., grabbed a bottle of liquor and confronted Byrd. She said one of the women in the apartment grabbed a pot, and Hawkins grabbed a knife.
“(Grady) didn’t do what he had done in the past — he didn’t leave,” Mccanney said.
She said Hawkins and Grady struggled over control of the knife. She said Byrd wrapped Grady in a bear hug to restrain him.
Mccanney said Grady first stabbed Byrd in the torso. She said Byrd begged him to “chill” but Grady, who was right by the door to leave, refused to drop the knife.
“Instead of walking out that door, he walked toward Rashaun and plunged (the knife) into his chest,” Mccanney said.
In his opening statement, Kindlon told jurors at the outset, “This is a case of self-defense. (Byrd) died as a result of a life-and-death struggle with Lahquann Grady.”
Kindlon argued that his client did not know anyone was home. He described Hawkins as unpredictable and prone to violent outbursts, especially when drunk.
“In the middle of struggle, Hothead took control of the knife and went after Lahquann,” Kindlon said. “He thought he was going to be stabbed. He thought if he didn’t act, he would have died.”
As Kindlon made the allegation, Byrd’s mother burst into tears and left the courtroom.
If convicted of seconddegree murder, Grady faces 25 years to life in prison. The trial continues Thursday.