Court hears witnesses over the course of a 12-hour day

Lawyers presented the 15 jury members from Hamilton County different portions of the evidence collected as the prosecution team went through diagrams and photographs of Stewart and Madden’s Raiders Crossing apartment, Stewart’s cell phone and accessories and pages from Stewart’s autopsy report.

The court also listened to both 911 emergency calls– one from Stewart’s boyfriend KC Anuna, and heard the testimony of the 911 dispatcher who fielded both calls.

The accused, Shanterrica Madden, sat on the bench with her attorney Joe Brandon Jr. Madden is being accused of first degree murder after the altercation between Stewart and Madden on March 2, 2011. Madden is pleading not guilty to the charge and claiming self-defense.  Assistant District Attorney General Paul Newman is leading the prosecution, and Judge Don Ash is presiding over the case.

Chief Medical Examiner of Davidson County, Amy McMaster, took the stand on the first day as one of the key testimonies to the trial. As an expert witness, she explained in a detailed account of Stewart’s body during the autopsy and thoroughly described the Stewart’s four wounds.

McMaster testified that Stewart died due to the injury she sustained to her aorta and right lobe of her lung, which was a two-inch stab wound. She also indicated the injuries could be the result of a serrated kitchen knife that is believed to be the primary murder weapon.

In addition to the medical examiner, three members of Stewart’s family took the stand as her parents Ida and Adrian Jackson along with her sister Monika Jones shared the last moments each of them saw Stewart alive.

“The last time I saw her alive was at her basketball game on the road in Alabama,” Jones said. “The last time I talked to her was on the phone the day before the situation happened.”

Members of the Lady Raider basketball team and Coach Rick Insell also took the witness stand to help build the timeline of Stewart’s last day.

Both her head coach and now-junior shooting guard Kortni Jones described Stewart’s last practice as one of the best she had ever had. However, both Jones and former Lady Raider basketball player Anne Marie Lanning testified that Stewart first complained about her roommate situation earlier in the spring 2011 semester.

“In the locker room one day, we were sitting there and Tina was complaining about her roommate,” Lanning said. “She said her roommate was smoking marijuana and that she didn’t need to be around that.”

The day of March 2, Stewart called the Raiders Crossing apartment complex to complain that Madden was smoking marijuana in the apartment. As attorney Brandon revealed in his opening statement, Stewart was posting complaints on her Twitter account about Madden and the speed of the police.

Ida Stewart Jackson testifies during the Madden murder trial. Photo courtesy of John Gillis, DNJ.

Jennifer Davidson, the senior assistant of Raiders Crossing, assisted in handling the situation after receiving a call from the main office complex with Stewart’s complaint.

“She said [in the phone call] that she was a basketball player,” Davidson said. “She also said that she was on scholarship and didn’t want that to affect her.”

Davidson called courtesy officer Tim Jensen, who went to Stewart and Madden’s apartment to see about the complaint.

As he testified on the stand today, Jensen said Madden and her friend Renee Reese were in the apartment, and he explained why he was there. Jensen also said he looked around marijuana after Madden invited him in, and found loose tobacco in the trash can.

“I did not smell marijuana in the apartment,” Jensen said.

Jensen said he did find evidence of a roach, and asked Madden and Reese to dispose of it. He said in court that he could not arrest or give either of the girls a citation because the roach he found did not have any green-leafy like evidence of marijuana.

“I would have still done it the same way,” Jensen said. “I am not sure if there is anything I could’ve done different.”