Trial continued against murder suspect Cortez Hairston Jr. in Christian Circuit Court Thursday morning, and a co-defendant in the case took the stand to testify.
Jaila Sherrod has already entered a guilty plea to facilitation to murder and tampering with physical evidence for her role in the events that ultimately led to the shooting death of Adrian Acree on Sharpe Street in 2021. To the court Thursday, Sherrod says she began the communications with Acree through Instagram and she was the one that got him to Jones Street the night the shooting happened.
She alleges that Hairston told her his plan was to kill Acree.
Sherrod says when they were at the location, another vehicle pulled up—that’s when Acree got out of the vehicle, thinking he was meeting with someone else, but it was Hairston that allegedly got out of the other vehicle and began shooting.
Sherrod says she was scared for herself and Hairston, which is why she didn’t cooperate with officers when they would later contact her for an interview about the shooting, but she also feared for her own life.
Following the prosecution’s questions, Hairston’s Defense Attorney, Rob Eggert approached the stand and further question Sherrod.
On the night of the shooting, Sherrod claimed she called Acree, but Eggert says that evidence shows that Acree actually called Sherrod asking for a ride.
According to Eggert, Sherrod also received $300 from Acree for the ride to Jones Street.
Sherrod did admit that she lied to investigators at the start, and that she was the one that got rid of the murder weapon in a body of water in northern Christian County. Her plea deal, which came with a five year sentence on both charges, came with the condition that she testify in trial.
Trial is set to continue into Friday. Another defendant, Dekorian Daniel, is facing a complicity to murder charge in connection with the shooting.