On an April evening in 2015, the life of 23-year-old Kevin DeAndre Hatter was cut short by gunfire in Brighton, Alabama. The shooting occurred on April 8th in the front yard of a residence located on the 1200 block of 47th Street. Hatter, a male resident of Brighton, was fatally wounded during a confrontation that escalated to violence.
The investigation into the death of Kevin Hatter led to the arrest of a suspect, Caderrien Jawaun McLemore, who was 21 years old at the time.
McLemore was subsequently charged with murder, and the case was set to proceed to trial in September of 2018. The prosecution's case, however, faced a significant and ultimately insurmountable setback.
In a turn of events that would prevent the case from being tried, it was revealed that the Brighton Police Department had lost crucial pieces of evidence. The firearm believed to be the weapon used in the shooting, along with shell casings collected from the crime scene, could not be located. This loss of critical evidence led to the dismissal of the murder charges against McLemore. The dismissal was made without prejudice, which leaves the possibility for charges to be refiled in the future if the evidence is found or new evidence emerges. The police chief at the time acknowledged shortcomings in the department's evidence tracking procedures.
