Details emerge in 1995 Ann Arbor shootout that killed 16-year-old

On Monday, the murder trial began for 34-year-old Deondre Byrd, who prosecutors say fired a .357 caliber handgun that night, looking to settle a “beef” with William “Chuck” Taylor.

Deondre Byrd

Byrd was one of at least four people who opened fire, said Washtenaw County Chief Deputy Assistant Prosecutor Steve Hiller.

While Byrd didn’t fire the hollow-point 9mm bullet that killed Stewart, he can be held criminally responsible, Hiller told the jury in opening statements. Byrd went to the party with a gun intending to settle a dispute with Taylor and helped to get things going, Hiller said.

“He’s responsible…for every bullet that was fired,” Hiller said.

Byrd’s attorney, Anthony Chambers, told the jury at least three men had guns and attempted to kill Byrd, who was fleeing.

“Mr. Byrd is running,” Chambers said. “Mr. Byrd is trying to get away.”

On Monday, the jury heard testimony from Gibbs and five others. Witnesses included Tamara Stewart's father, Verlie Stewart Jr., brother Terron Stewart, who attended the party, cousin Lashonda Harris, who accompanied her to the party, and two Ann Arbor police officers who responded.

Harris was standing by Tamara Stewart’s car talking to some people about 20 minutes after arriving at the party. Shots were fired.

“It sounded like firecrackers to me,” she said. “It didn’t register in my head people were shooting ... A guy I knew from school was like ‘they’re shooting!’ and just pulled me to the ground.”

After the gunfire settled, Harris sifted her way through a crowd, looking for Stewart and Gibbs.

“I pushed through a crowd and that’s when I seen it was Tamara laying in the street,” she said.

It took two hours for Ann Arbor police to get control over the crime scene, retired Det. Lt. Christopher Heatley testified.

Heatley was a sergeant on road patrol that night. Between six and eight officers responded and found a crowd of 125 to 175 people, he testified.

“As we pulled up, people were screaming, hollering, running about the area,” he said. “I guess the best way to describe it was mass chaos.”

Officers had to use pepper spray to keep the crowd at bay. “Rocks and bottles were being thrown at the officers,” he said.

Gibbs, the one running with Stewart when she was killed, estimated between 20 and 30 shots were fired in a span of four or five minutes that night.

Prior to the first shot, she heard someone inside a house say, "He got his money," she testified.

Gibbs also testified she saw a man believed to be William Taylor holding a gun behind his back after the gunfire stopped.

At the same time, she admitted Monday to intentionally misleading investigators in the past and not being truthful in testimony in the case in 1995.

Her explanation: "Everything was just overwhelming. I was young."

Byrd and Taylor were charged in 1995, but the cases were dismissed when witnesses refused to testify, saying they were too scared. Taylor was fatally shot in an unrelated case at an Ann Arbor hotel in 2002.

Three other men also were charged; two were convicted, and one was acquitted. The case was revived last year after one of the men who was convicted - 33-year-old Emilio Vasquez - won the right to a new trial on appeal.

Before his second trial got under way, Vasquez pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and admitted he fired a handgun in Stewart's direction that night.

Vasquez, who was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison, also agreed to testify in any cases that arose from Stewart's death.

Byrd, 34, is also awaiting trial in federal court in the shooting deaths of an Ypsilanti Township woman, her boyfriend and 14-year-old son in 2001.

Lee Higgins covers crime and courts for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at (734) 623-2527 or email at leehiggins@annarbor.com.