Derrick Brandon Wells, a 47-year-old Black man, was killed in the early hours of May 6, 2018, in Columbia, Tennessee, after gunfire shattered the quiet around the River Villa Apartments on Riverside Drive. Police responding to reports of shots fired found him outside an apartment, badly wounded and fading fast; officers tried to help at the scene before he was taken to Maury Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
In the story that emerged at trial, the moments leading up to the shooting unfolded around a friend’s small apartment in the complex. A woman who lived there, Megan Diaz, told investigators she knew Wells and considered him a friend, even trusting him with a key when he needed somewhere to stay. She also recognized two men she knew by nicknames—“Sleepy” and “K.B.”—who would later be identified in court as Clifton Donnell Craig and Kavaris Javon Booker.
The tension, according to testimony, had been simmering over something as small as a $25 debt. Diaz said “Sleepy” owed Wells money and hadn’t paid, and she recalled Wells talking about taking the issue to a neighbor, Reginald Wade. On the night of the shooting, Diaz said Craig and Booker were at her apartment with Wells; she couldn’t make out what was said outside, but she heard bursts of gunfire—rapid shots, a pause, then more—while muzzle flashes lit up near the windows. Officers arrived to find Wells on the ground, and the medical examiner later detailed multiple gunshot wounds across his body, with a fatal chest wound that caused catastrophic internal damage.
As investigators closed in, police publicly identified Craig and Booker as suspects and sought them on first-degree murder charges. Booker turned himself in, while Craig was placed on the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s Top 10 Most Wanted list and captured in Hamilton County two days after the killing. Court records also describe how Craig’s girlfriend, Kellen Oden, said he returned to her home after the shooting, blocked her from answering the door when police arrived, and began hiding items; she later went to authorities and was charged with accessory after the fact and tampering with evidence for her role in disposing of a gun.
The case moved from manhunt to courtroom. A Maury County grand jury indicted both Craig and Booker on charges including first degree premeditated murder, felon in possession of a firearm, and aggravated assault resulting in death, and their cases were tried together. Evidence described at trial included testimony about two calibers of gunfire recovered from the scene and the chaotic sequence of shots heard that night. The jury convicted Craig on the indicted charges, and he received a life sentence; Booker was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm and of facilitation of first degree murder and facilitation of aggravated assault resulting in death, receiving an effective seventeen-year sentence. On appeal, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the convictions and sentences.
