AUSTIN, Texas — Day 2 has wrapped up in the murder trial of a man accused of carrying out a mass shooting on Sixth Street more than two years ago.
De'Ondre White is accused of killing Douglas Kantor and injuring 13 others in Downtown Austin. More witnesses took the stand Wednesday, including two men and a woman who were downtown on the night of the shooting.
The day kicked off on an emotional note, with Deputy Medical Examiner Vickie Willoughby detailing Kantor's injuries in photographs, causing his family tearing up in the courtroom.
Some other witnesses who spoke were Mahkalen Jackson, Tyshawn Degrate and Terrenesha Thomas.
Degrate said he encountered Jeremiah Tabb downtown and claims Tabb was trying to instigate a fight. Degrate, who was 15 at the time, showed he had a gun and that is when he says he saw De'Ondre White firing gunshots. Degrate claims he never attempted to shoot at Tabb or his friends, but Jackson has provided conflicting information, saying Degrate may have fired those shots.
Police originally charged Tabb for the shooting but later rescinded that charge and instead charged him with evidence tampering.
The Kantor family's attorney, Doug O'Connell, gave his take on the trial so far.
"Well, it's very clear they're taking a very methodical approach. But in terms of advancing the ball, we haven't seen it yet. And you know, this is a two-week trial, so there's a lot more opportunity for the government to tie the evidence together," O'Connell said. "I think we should anticipate some good evidence, including photographs and location data tying up information from cell phones, we should see some ballistic testimony meaning this is the gun we found. We found it here, we know De'Ondre White had this gun and we can with scientific certainty tell you that these bullets came from the gun."
The court has also watched more HALO footage from the night of the shooting, which showed the witnesses' locations.
Other witnesses who gave testimony were Jason Petty, who works with the Killeen Police Department and helped locate White on an active murder warrant, and Daniel Portnoy, who works in the digital forensics unit of the Austin Police Department and extracts data from phones to analyze it.