Dacoby Reshard Wooten, 29, was convicted last week of first-degree murder in the 2015 murder of his ex-girlfriend Dav’niesha Bryant, 24. Wooten now faces the possiblity of the death penalty. Prosecutors say he stalked and threatened her leading up to the day that he killed her. The defense admits this homicide did happen, but that it was a crime of passion.
Court records indicate that Wooten terrorized Bryant for years.
Bryant was killed on November 23, 2015. Wooten fatally shot her during an argument at her apartment, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime. The victim’s mother witnessed the act. She said that before the shooting, she pleaded for Wooten not to hurt her daughter, and that this went on for several minutes as the defendant pointed his gun at Bryant.
In the end, Wooten fired at least twice, killing the daughter. The defendant told the mother that she was “next,” and she fled the scene in fear as he fired several bullets at her but missed, deputies said.
Wooten had been arrested for stalking Bryant the previous month. A court had issued a restraining order against him, but it hadn’t been served at the time of the homicide.
Prosecutors said in court that he had threatened her in October 2015, according to CBS 12:
They say one [threat] said, “It’s going to feel so good to hear you say no Coby no don’t do it. I want you to show these messages to the police because I’m going to do it to you. And that’s not a threat it’s a promise.”
[Screengrab via CBS 12]