MIAMI (Court TV) — A Florida rapper charged with murder says she was defending herself when she shot the victim, but prosecutors say video of the incident tells a different story.
Kevhani Hicks (Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation)
Kevhani Hicks, 28, also known as rapper “Key Vani,” is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Demetrie Harris, who was shot and killed in a parking lot. Hicks appeared in court on Wednesday for a hearing to dismiss the charge under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, which allows people to use deadly force to protect themselves.
Prosecutors showed video of the shooting, captured by surveillance cameras, at Wednesday’s hearing. The videos appear to show Harris walking away from Hicks in the moments before he was killed.
“From where we sit today, in a quiet courtroom, almost exactly three years after the shooting, with a remote in our hands, it’s easy to Monday-quarterback the videos,” Hicks’ attorney, Marissa Altman-Glatzer, said in her opening statement to the court. She conceded that from some angles, the videos make it appear that Harris was trying to get away. “But the law is not always easy to apply,” Altman-Glatzer said. “The law says what matters is not the perspective of the courtroom looking at those limits. It doesn’t matter what we can see now, three years after the fact … what matters is what Ms. Hicks would have seen, what Ms. Hicks had to be thinking and feeling in that moment.”
Prosecutors began presenting their case by calling Nathan Smith, Hicks’ music manager and a friend of the victim. Smith testified that things had been tense with Hicks and Harris and said he remembered the two arguing in his car, but he couldn’t offer many specifics. “It’s so blurry,” Smith said when asked to recall details.
Smith said he did remember that when the arguing escalated, Hicks got out of the car and wanted to leave. He said that his only goal in that moment was to calm everybody down. “I just wanted everybody to get along,” he said. At some point after Smith and Hicks got out of the car, Harris did as well. While Smith denied seeing Harris hit Hicks, he said he did see both the victim and the defendant fall to the ground.
Altman-Glatzer pressed Smith on his involvement in the altercation, but the witness repeatedly denied taking any active role in attacking the defendant. “I don’t think I [struck] her at all,” he said. “I never tried to pin her down. I just tried to separate her and try to make sure that everybody left unscathed. I never pinned her down, I never put my foot on her, I never kicked her, any of that.”
Hicks’ defense has said that Harris, despite appearing to walk away, was continuing to threaten her. Altman-Glatzer said Harris yelled things like, “I could beat your a— to death,” “I kill little b— like you,” and “I could hit you one time and you’ll die.” Smith said he “can’t remember now” whether he heard any death threats.
Smith said that after the fighting stopped, he started to get back into his car. “The night [was] ruined already,” he said. “I got in my car and I peeled out. I heard gunshots and I feared for my life and took off.” When he did that, he hit Hicks with his car while pulling out of his parking spot. Smith left the scene and went back home.
David Greer, a security officer who was on patrol when the shots were fired, testified he witnessed the altercation. He also denied hearing any death threats, saying the only statement he heard from Harris was, “I told you not to ever disrespect me.” When he heard the gunshots, he said he ran from the scene in fear.
Greer: “I was scared.”
Altman-Glatzer: “And you were scared because there was a very large man on top of this woman acting very aggressively?”
Greer: “Correct.”
Altman-Glatzer repeatedly emphasized the difference between Harris’ much larger 6-foot, 200-pound frame and Hicks’ 5-foot, 100-pound frame, forcing Miami police Detective Amado Ventura to agree that the victim dwarfed the defendant.
Surveillance video shows an altercation involving Kevhani Hicks. (WTVJ)
Harris suffered three gunshot wounds; a total of 10 cartridge casings were found at the scene. Medical examiner Catherine Kenerson testified that the first gunshot hit Harris’ left leg and was not a debilitating injury. The second gunshot hit his lower back and the third was to his upper back.
“The law does not require that Ms. Hicks be in actual danger,” Altman-Glatzer said. “We will never know what Mr. Harris would have done, because the law says Ms. Hicks did not have to wait until it was too late. She did not have to wait until she was killed. The whole point of the ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws are to enable her to make that split-second, lifesaving decision to shoot in order to prevent her own death.”
A defense psychologist was unable to testify at Wednesday’s hearing because of medical issues, meaning the hearing will have to resume at a later date so the defense can present its case. The parties are scheduled to meet in court on Sept. 28 to discuss a date for the hearing to continue.
