Hooks, Miller testify during second day of murder trial

The second day of the trial of Tristan Waller, who is alleged to have shot and killed Brandon Parker, began with several hours of testimony from Chancin Hooks.

Following Hooks’ testimony, state and local law enforcement officials and the second victim in the case, Randy Lamar Miller, testified.

Hooks testifies

Deputy Prosecutor Carla Gibson asked Hooks to describe the events leading to the altercation on June 5, 2019, the day Brandon Parker was shot to death.

Hooks said he and Waller (whom he referred to as Dakota) were riding the back roads, drinking and partying, “like teenagers do.”

Hooks said Waller was acting weird; “I could just tell,” he asserted.

They were in the Strong cemetery smoking when Waller said he wanted to get revenge on Parker for selling him fake cocaine. He wanted his money back, Hooks said. They went to Sandy Bend Road and smoked and waited for Parker (or “BP”) to come.

Gibson asked, “Did you believe he sought revenge?” “No.”

They waited, Hooks said, until Parker arrived with Randy Lamar Miller. Everyone shook hands, and a 100-count package of Xanax was presented. Hooks tested it by breaking one and tasting it, he said.

“I thought it was fake. It did not taste bitter,” Hooks said, describing why he rejected the pills, and adding that he previously had a Xanax prescription.

The two left without the pills, stopped, then returned to Sandy Bend because Waller got a text to “come back,” Hooks said.

When they pulled onto the road, Waller got out of his vehicle and went to talk with Parker, who was in his own ve

hicle. Hooks said Waller then reached into his back pocket and pulled out a gun, which he unloaded.

“Dakota (Waller) shot first,” Hooks testified. He said Waller unloaded the gun then dropped to the ground.

Randy L. Miller then took out a pistol and shot, Hooks testified.

Hooks said he never got out of Waller’s vehicle; he ducked when the shooting started. He did move to driver’s side of the vehicle and drove until he met up with Waller, who hopped in, he said.

The gun Waller used came from Hooks, he said, explaining that Waller had “asked to hold” the .380 caliber gun. “Mine was small, about as big as my hand,” Hooks said.

Waller jumped into the truck and threw the gun into Hooks’ lap saying, “It’s your problem,” before taking over at the wheel, Hooks said.

At the time, Hooks was 17. The two went to a friend’s house to get weed because, “I was shook. I was confused,” Hooks said.

Hooks said Waller was bragging: “I shot BP.”

Gibson asked if Waller showed any remorse. “No,” answered Hooks. “Was he scared?” “No.”

The pair traveled to El Dorado in Waller’s truck, which Hooks said they left at Hooks’ grandmother’s house in front of Beaver Dam. He said Haley Dixon picked them up and took them to the Waller home, where they went inside and sat at the kitchen table.

In other testimony, Hooks said he had lived with the Waller family for several months because he was kicked out of his home and needed to go to school; he said he had been treated as family.

At the Waller kitchen table, Waller said, “Randy shot at me,” Hooks testified.

According to Hooks, he was told to hand over his phone and the gun.

“I would not give it (the phone) to them. They took out the SIM card,” he said.

Hooks noted that Waller had a waist holster tucked into his back. He said he did not know what happened to it.

They cleaned up, Hooks said, and he was told to get rid of his gun. He tossed it in the woods behind Waller’s house and left with his mother to go to her grandmother’s house.

“I did not know what to do,” Hooks said.

When he went back to Waller’s house, police cars were waiting, Hooks said. Hooks showed them where he threw the gun.

He said he was told he could go home and would need to give a statement.

In his testimony, Hooks said he bought the gun from a friend in Crossett. It was not a legal purchase since he was only 17 and, according to his understanding, the gun was stolen from a car, he said.

Waller’s attorney Sylvester Smith asked if Hooks had been made any promises or guarantees if he testified. Hooks was arrested and had been in jail five months at the time he gave his statement to a Union County Sheriff’s deputy with his attorney present.

Hooks denied any such agreement.

Smith said Hooks’ testimony had changed from his first conversation with Haley Dixon after she picked them up before the kitchen table conversation.

“It was confusing,” Hooks said of the June 5, 2019 event.

“Now it is as clear as a bell,” Smith asked, noting it has been three years since the event.

“Yes.”

The Waller family told Hooks and Tristan Waller to turn themselves in, Smith said.

Hooks said he did see a gun on the floor board near Randy L. Miller during their first conversation on Sandy Bend Road.

When the shots were fired, Hooks was in Waller’s truck and he ducked at the sound of gunshots, he said.

“Randy shot at me after shooting at Dakota,” Hooks testified.

Smith asked if he looked up during the gunfight. “No,” Hooks said. “Could you see who shot over the truck?”

“I peeked up.” Smith reminded Hooks that he said he did not look up and that Hooks sat in jail for months after the shooting before making a statement to police.

Smith asked Hooks to diagram the position of the vehicles and where each person sat in them.

Hooks again said Waller shot first, emptying his clip before running out and around to the woods while Miller shot at him.

Smith then played excerpts from the interview Hooks had with the UCSO five months after the shooting. He pointed out that they contradicted Hooks’ testimony in court.

Hooks said, “I was confused. I just wanted to tell the truth.” He said the Waller family wanted him to say the shooting was self-defense.

Both Hooks, and later Miller, said Miller shot four times.

The prosecuting attorney contended that the excerpts from Hooks’ police interview were taken out of context. After discussion and objections from Smith, Judge Grisham Phillips said, “you opened the door to playing the interview tapes,” and agreed to having the hour and a half of tapes played.

With interruptions and elimination of irrelevant material, the tapes were played, repeating Hooks’ original testimony to police in court.

Asked where Waller got $500 to buy the Xanax, Hooks said it came from Waller’s dad.

In reference to his previous statements to the UCSO, Hooks said the Waller family, “told me to tell Dakota’s story of self-defense.”

“They kept telling me how crappy my lawyer was and to back up his story,” Hooks said.

He said that he did not see what Rudy Waller (Tristan Waller’s father) did with another gun Waller put on the family’s kitchen table

“I wasn’t paying attention,” Hooks said.

Other testimonies

In later testimony, state forensic chemist Candice Foskey said the green tablets she received as evidence were not Xanax, which is a controlled substance.

Chief firearm examiner Rebecca Mullen identified the guns submitted to her as a .380 caliber gun, two .45 caliber guns and ammunition from the scene that matched the guns.

State medical examiner Dr. Steven Erickson, M.D., testified about the gunshot wounds Parker received. He said two were superficial, pointing them out in photos. He said another went through a complex layer of the shoulder and arm — in, out, and in and out — as the deceased raised his hands. He said the bullet patterns showed they traveled from left to right, which would have been consistent with shots through the window of Parker’s driver’s side.

Erickson acknowledged there were multiple gunshot wounds and that Parker bled to death. He could not provide complex details because, “I don’t know. I can’t say the original position. I can’t say which direction, because people move really fast when they are shot at.”

He emphasized that all of the bullets traveled from left to right, with the exception of the bullet that went through Parker’s palm. He could not say which direction the hand was held, he said.

Randy Miller, the man in the car with Parker, was also called to testify Wednesday.

Miller was injured on his upper and lower lips when bullets grazed them. He was shown photographs of the injuries.

“I was shot; I did not know the individual who shot me,” Miller told police.

The incident began for Miller when Parker told him someone wanted to buy drugs.

“How did he know to call you?” the prosecuting attorney asked.

“By word of mouth,” Miller answered.

Parker said the buyer wanted a 100-pack of Xanax. Miller said he paid $300 for the Xanax then contacted Jaylin McMurray to take him to the blue building on the Hill where he met Parker. He said he joined Parker in his vehicle and they went to Sandy Bend Road and where they met Hooks and Waller.

Miller repeated, “I did not know them before that day.”

Miller said he did not have a gun, but there were two in the car — one by the console on the passenger side and one by Parker.

Waller and Hooks approached the car, one on each side, Miller said.

He said Waller took one of the pills and said, “I think my dad would like these.”

No money was produced. Parker and Waller negotiated for the drugs but did not buy, Miller said.

“We left and went to the Blue building,” Miller said.

There, Parker received a phone call that Miller did not hear. Then, “We turned around and began going back. I objected to returning. It didn’t feel right.”

This time Waller came to the driver’s window and handed money to Parker, Miller said.

Miller said he turned his head, looking away at which time, “there was no gun in Parkers’ hand,” or his own, he said.

“I heard shots. I turned back and Parker was facing forward and over the steering wheel,” Miller said. When he turned back, he was shot in the face.

Waller disappeared from his view, and Miller said he thought Waller had gone behind the car to come at him, so he turned around and shot in that direction, shooting the car’s tail light.

He turned back, saw Waller through the windshield running to his vehicle and shot twice through the windshield at him and once out the window, Miller said.

“I shot four times total.” Parker was slumped against the steering wheel.

“I tried to get BP to respond. It was too late, so I drove from the passenger side. I put my foot on his foot and pulled the steering wheel and went to the blue building where Jaylin McMurray was,” Miller said.

They moved Parker to the passenger side of the vehicle and took him from Urbana to the ProMed unit on the Strong Highway, Miller said, and from there he went to the hospital.

Smith asked, “Are you a convicted felon?”

Miller admitted he was and said he had worked as a drug dealer.

“Drug dealers do not rob each other,” Miller said.

Miller said he has been on El Dorado’s Most Wanted List.

“I would never describe myself as a shooter,” Miller said.

In his initial interview with the UCSO, Miller was unable to verbally answer questions due to his injuries. Instead, he wrote out, “I don’t know who did this. If I knew I would tell you. All I remember is guns,” Smith said, before Miller later admitted he did know who shot him.

He also told the UCSO he would bring Brandon Parker’s gun and to this day has not done so, according to Smith.

To Smith’s list of potential scenarios involving Miller, the man repeatedly answered, “Incorrect.”

John Perdue, a ProMed paramedic, testified that a vehicle pulled up in front of the ProMed shop. He said the person in the front – Parker — was “unresponsive, not breathing, no pulse.” He was transferred to the ambulance with a traumatic code.

“There was a significant amount of blood on the person and in the vehicle with injuries to the upper torso and arm. He was in cardiac arrest,” Perdue said.

Captain Scott Harwell of the El Dorado Police Department was asked if he considered Randy Lamar Miller a violent person. After several attempts to get an answer and discussions with Judge Phillips, Harwell did not give a yes or no answer, saying he did not know personally know Miller and could only respond from his investigations.

Union County Coroner Stormy Primm certified that he was dispatched in reference to the case, took pictures of the scene and went to the Medical Center of South Arkansas to certify the multiple injuries from gunshot wound on Parker. He then sent the body to the Arkansas State Crime lab.

Waller’s trial continued Thursday morning.