NASHVILLE, Tennessee - After seventeen months behind bars, the alleged "getaway driver" of the infamous 2007 Bellacino's Pizza robbery and slayings is now free.
Ravaughn Harris, a former Tennessee State University student from Chicago, Illinois, who if convicted, could have faced life in prison, was acquitted of all charges brought against him, which included First Degree Murder and Felony Murder on Saturday September 26, 2009.
"God did it!", said Joy Kimbrough, the defense attorney of Harris. "In a situation like this when you have people testifying against you in such an emotional and brutal case, ll you can really do is pray for the best."
Harris was arrested in April of 2008, after law enforcement officials gained information that Harris was not only a getaway driver, but helped plot the robbery, which led to the two execution style murders of Josh Cole and Chris Caris, employees of Bellacino's.
Crystle Rutherford, of Nashville, Tennessee a co-defendant of Harris who is also facing the same charges that were pitted against Harris, testified in court on Thursday September 24, 2009 that Harris helped plan the robbery in his car along with herself and Jason Bobo, another former TSU student from Memphis, Tennessee, and that Harris gave her a gun to use in the robbery, in addition to picking the two assailants up after the events transpired.
"It's only fair that the families know what really happened," Rutherford said. "When I die and I'm at the gates of heaven, I can't ask God to judge me fairly without doing this", she said.
Surveillance footage showed that only Rutherford and Bobo performed the robbery, which also showed Bobo fire the two fatal shots that left the Bellacino's workers dead.
While standing accused of being criminally responsible for the October 2007 murders, due to Harris' non-contacting of the police and admission to cleaning blood out of his vehicle, Harris made it very clear to the court as to why he made the decisions he did, immediately following the horrific incidents.
"I was scared. This man had just got in my car with blood all on him, saying he killed two people. After that I just went into tunnel vision. I was in fear of my life", Harris said in court last Thursday.
On Friday afternoon, September 25, after the prosecution and the defense presented their cases to the court, the decision was left to twelve jurors to come back with a verdict, which came back eleven hours later, Saturday morning, not guilty.
The decision brought tears to the families of the victims of the murders and to the family of Harris, leaving one family with a sense of relief. and the other with a journey for justice that has yet to be served.
"We're going to have a long talk", said Kwesi Harris, father of Ravaughn. - James Wilson
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