The trial has commenced for a Dallas teenager who is facing charges of murdering his 17-year-old girlfriend in January of last year.
According to police, 18-year-old Trevon Wright shot and killed Ikea Hood at his family home.
Hood, a junior student on the Tigerette drill team at Lancaster High School, tragically lost her life just three weeks after giving birth to a baby girl.
Tequoya Lester stood before a Dallas judge, vividly recounting the heart-wrenching moment when she discovered her lifeless daughter in her bedroom one Sunday morning.
“Yeah, that’s the window,” Lester said through tears as prosecutors showed pictures of the crime scene. “I don’t want to see it.”
On January 7th of last year, a tragic incident occurred when 17-year-old Ikea Hood lost her life due to a fatal gunshot inside her family’s residence on Grambling Drive.
Hood was just feet away from her first child, a three-week-old baby girl.
Trevon Wright, who was 17 at the time of the incident, was arrested by US Marshals.
According to NBC 5, Hood’s family revealed that Wright and Hood were in a relationship, but they ended things after Hood learned from a paternity test that Wright was not the father of her baby.
According to the arrest affidavit, Lester stated that Wright was visiting Hood and the baby at her home when a gunshot was heard coming from Hood’s bedroom.
Lester mentioned that she found the door locked. As a result, she decided to go outside and attempted to climb through the window. To her surprise, she discovered that Wright was no longer there, and her daughter remained motionless.
Hood said that he rolled her over when he found her lying on her side.
Wright faced serious charges of first-degree murder.
Wright’s attorney argued today that there were no eyewitnesses to confirm that his client pulled the trigger.
“You tried to figure [what happened] out because you were not in the room when the gun discharged, correct?” Wright’s attorney asked Lester while she was on the stand.
“Correct,” she responded.
“Alright, thank you ma’am,” the defense attorney concluded.
According to an independent trial expert interviewed by NBC 5, the heartfelt testimony provided by Hood’s family has the potential to greatly influence the jurors’ decision.
“I can tell you that when a particularly sympathetic victim or family member of a victim testifies, it can sway jurors to go in a direction they might otherwise not go in,” said Quentin Brogdon, the former president of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association. “That absolutely is the case.”
Tuesday marked the beginning of a challenging journey for the victim’s family as they had to relive one of the most dreadful days of their lives.
“This is like reliving all of this again,” expressed Lester.