Darrent Williams murder trial entering endgame
Deceased Broncos players are remembered in graffiti. Darrent Williams was gunned down on NYD 2007, and Nash died from heart complications at a charity basketball game in February of the same year.
Image by steven_the_spamkid via Flickr
The man accused of killing Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams on New Year’s Day 2007 has yet to take the stand in his own trial, but Denver prosecutors have brought plenty of his supposed accomplices to the forefront as the trial moves into its final stages.
Defendant Willie Clark has been pointed to as the shooter by two friends, and another claims that Clark asked her to help him hide a vehicle involved in the shooting.
Williams was shot in the neck as he sat in a white stretch Hummer on Speer Blvd around 2am after an altercation at a Denver nightclub earlier in the evening. The gunfire originated from a white Chevy Tahoe SUV, spraying the passenger section of the vehicle.
Although Williams was the only player shot in the attack, a number of other Broncos have been involved with the trial. Former Broncos Wide Receiver Javon Walker held Darrent as he bled to death, and Brandon Marshall is widely believed to have been the intended target that night. Broncos Defensive End Elvis Dumervil was instrumental in generating testimony from a female accomplice of Clark.
Dumervil made a secret recording of a conversation with a female friend of Clark, and with whom Elvis had a prior relationship. Shaniqua Dunn took the stand last Thursday and originally had difficulty remember details of her encounter with Clark on the night of the shooting. After prosecutors told her they had a recording from Dumervil’s cell phone, Dunn admitted that Clark asked her and her boyfriend for a gun the night of the shooting. When they turned him down, Clark reportedly said, “That’s okay, I have one in my car.”
Said Dumervil, “She called me and she started talking and I felt whatever she said might be valuable and might help in someway somehow.” Elvis activated a feature on his phone that recorded the remainder of his conversation with Dunn.
Denver Broncos Wide Receiver Brandon Marshall was likely the gunman’s intended target, this based on Marshall’s testimony from last week.
It was Marshall who initially tried to diffuse a verbal altercation outside of the Denver nightclub, but Brandon eventually escalated the situation when he went after a member of Clark’s crew. After Clark threatened Marshall and his cousin, Brandon exclaimed, “You ain’t got no f**cking gun.”
Clark took off running, and Marshall and others tried to leave the scene as quickly as possible. Said Marshall, “Being from where I’m from . . . if there ain’t no police there breaking up no fight or an argument and guys take off . . . a light should go off meaning danger. The first thing I thought about was, ‘These guys running, he’s acting like he has a gun. He may be running to go get a gun.’”
Marshall was not in the vehicle that was targeted by gunfire, and he says he thinks about the altercation that led to Darrent Williams’ death every night.
Prosecutors will try to utilize the testimony of Clark’s friends, Vernon Edwards & Daniel Harris, to convict him in the case.
Edwards said that Clark admitted to the shooting, and when Vernon advised him to turn himself in Clark implied that he would “go on the run” instead. Harris testified that he was in the vehicle when Willie Clark fired on Williams’ Hummer. Clark’s lawyers are expected to suggest that Harris was actually the gunman that night.
The prosecution will likely finish introducing evidence and testimony early next week.
