Preliminary hearing held for Jackson homicide suspects

JACKSON, Tenn. — Witnesses, including members of Tavoris Bates’ family, testified Thursday in Jackson City Court about the night Bates was shot and killed on Middle Avenue.

“That’s when the gunshots went off. I ran to the door to try and get all the kids, I had about 12 or 13 kids in the house,” said Bates’ mother, Pamela Bates.

“I saw him shooting at my brother, that’s what I saw… I did what a sane person would do, get out of the way,” testified Michela Fowler.

Corrion Greer and Billy Moore are both charged with first-degree murder in Bates’ death. Witnesses testified in court that Greer and Moore were in a nearby car when the shooting started.

One point of contention was how many shots were fired at the scene. Both the prosecution and the defense tried to establish where each shot came from and who fired it.

When asked how many shots she heard, Fowler said she did not know exactly, but she knew it was a lot. Pamela Bates said she wasn’t sure either, but estimated around eight or nine.

Witnesses said Greer and Moore were in a fight with Bates and a friend about an hour before the shooting. During Thursday’s preliminary hearing, witnesses said Greer and Moore came back to the house on Middle Avenue about an hour after that fight, and started shooting at Bates.

“Middle Avenue has a camera that faces it, at the intersection of First and Middle. It faces directly towards where the scene of the shooting happened,” investigator Robert Groves testified.

That camera also shows where some of the gunshots came from.

“You can see the first muzzle flash come from the passenger side of the Altima,” Groves said as he and the attorneys watched video evidence.

Judge Blake Anderson bound both cases over to the Madison County grand jury. Moore and Greer are currently being held without bond in the Madison County Criminal Justice Complex.