Trial opens in shooting of toddler
Mother one of the first witnesses to testify
PALM BEACH COUNTY – Chantel Colin says she can only remember a few details from the afternoon five years ago when her 18-month-old son was fatally shot in the back seat of her Toyota Corolla.
She testified Monday in a Palm Beach County courtroom as one of the first witnesses in the trial of Devonte White, who is charged with first-degree murder in the death of I’zarion Colin.
The mom told the jury she was reclining in the front passenger seat and sleeping when she heard her then-boyfriend, driver William Robinson, in a struggle with another man who was in the back seat, next to I’zarion.
Prosecutors said White, 26, had arranged a meeting with Robinson, who was dealing marijuana and Xanax pills. But the deal went south after White entered the Corolla, sat down next to I’zarion, pulled out a gun and demanded the drugs.
“During that struggle, the gun went off, striking I’zarion in the stomach,” Assistant State Attorney Chrichet Mixon said during her opening statement.
Chantel Colin said she never got a good look at the gunman, whose hair partially obscured his face. But she heard him say, “Don’t move,” before one shot was fired.
“I look back and I see the baby, bleeding,” she said, using a tissue to wipe her tears. “I was screaming, ‘he shot my baby, he shot my baby!’ ”
Colin said the man bolted from the car and fled in an SUV that was parked a few spaces away at Palms West apartments, in the 1500 block of Quail Drive, near West Palm Beach.
She said she panicked, with Robinson initially driving to her mother’s residence six minutes away. There, the decision was made to get I’zarion to an emergency room. But he couldn’t be saved and died the next morning.
White wasn’t arrested until nearly three years later.
On Monday, defense attorney Tom Weiss told the jury that the wrong man was charged in the “very tragic case.”
“Devonte White is not the gunman,” he said, contending that the
evidence to be offered by prosecutors “won’t be credible enough to prove anything.”
Weiss outlined numerous weaknesses in the case:
■ The murder weapon wasn’t recovered.
■ None of the fingerprints from the Corolla match White.
■ White’s DNA was not found in the car either, nor was his DNA in the Ford Explorer described as the getaway SUV.
■ Witnesses are unreliable, beginning with Chantel Colin, who had a sheet over her face during the shooting and was unable to pick a suspect out of lineups.
Weiss said that Robinson has faulty memory from substance abuse, and he also lied to detectives during the investigation.
The defense attorney also slammed witness Kenneth Smith, the driver of the SUV who has pleaded guilty to a felony charge of accessory after the fact. Smith is scheduled to be sentenced June 14.
Weiss called Smith “a manipulative, deceitful person” who lied to investigators and is cooperating now only because he faces up to 30 years in prison.
Finally, the defense blasted I’zarion’s biological father for telling detectives that White confessed to him about being in the Corolla.
“This was a fabrication and it’s just not credible,”
Weiss said.
Chantel Colin testified that the plan on May 28, 2014, was for Robinson to drive her, I’zarion and Robinson’s 4-year-old son to Chuck E. Cheese in Boynton Beach. She was sleepy, but recalls hearing Robinson on the phone arranging to meet someone.
Prosecutor Mixon said the evidence shows the meeting was with White, who had met Robinson in a nightclub a month earlier.
“As the [drug deal] was about to happen, Devonte White pulls put a firearm and he points it at Mr. Robinson despite I’Zarion being there,” Mixon said. “Mr. Robinson attempted to distract the defendant by throwing the marijuana at him and the struggle ensues.”
The trial is expected to conclude by Friday.