On the afternoon of June 1, 2022, the life of Henisha Leishauna Scott, a 24-year-old Black woman from Mobile, Alabama, was tragically cut short. Scott and a companion, 27-year-old Micheal Trotter, were sitting inside a white Kia in the parking lot of the Main Street Food Mart in Prichard when an attacker opened fire. The vehicle was riddled with dozens of bullets in the brazen daylight shooting, and both Scott and Trotter were fatally wounded.
The Prichard Police Department’s
investigation moved quickly. Witnesses reported seeing two people flee the scene in a gold-colored Toyota Camry. Five days after the shooting, on June 6, investigators arrested 26-year-old Julian Woods. He was charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of Scott and Trotter. Shortly after his arrest, Woods was stabbed multiple times while in custody at the Mobile County Metro Jail, but his injuries were not life-threatening.
A grand jury later indicted Woods on three counts of capital murder. The indictment alleged that he intentionally caused the deaths of both victims during a single course of conduct and that they were killed while inside a vehicle. The case was scheduled to proceed to trial, and the victims' families prepared for the long legal process ahead.
However, as the June 2026 trial date approached, the prosecution’s case began to fall apart. Two key witnesses, who prosecutors said were critical to identifying the shooter, repeatedly failed to appear in court. One witness, who was in Georgia, defied a judge's order to travel to Alabama for the trial. The other could not be located by sheriff's deputies or investigators, leading a judge to issue a warrant for her arrest.
Compounding the witness issues, the Mobile County District Attorney confirmed that problems within the Prichard Police Department’s evidence room also weakened the case. Missing evidence from the troubled facility, which the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office had taken over to reorganize, contributed to the collapse of the prosecution. With no critical witnesses and compromised evidence, prosecutors could not move forward.
On the motion of the defense, a Mobile County Circuit Judge formally dismissed all capital murder charges against Julian Woods. The judge left open the possibility for a new indictment in the future. As of June 2026, the double homicide of Henisha Scott and Micheal Trotter remains unsolved.
