In recent
years, Mr. Cotham had lived away from Nashville, but in April 2010, he contacted the
Defendant and began doing construction work for him. The Defendant and Mr. Cotham also
socialized together. At the time, the Defendant lived with his mother, and Mr. Cotham
alternately stayed with multiple women.

        On August 29, 2010, the victim and the child attended Mass at St. Edward’s Catholic
Church. A priest testified that he spoke with the victim after the Mass around 11:35 or 11:40
a.m. The Defendant waited in a parking lot outside the church to exchange custody of the
child, as was the usual procedure on Sundays. The Defendant and the child left, and the
victim returned to her house. Mr. Cotham was waiting nearby as she left the church,agreed to
go to the Hermitage Precinct to be interviewed. He wanted to have his uncle accompany
him, and the detectives followed him in a separate vehicle from his house to his uncle’s
house and to the precinct. Detective Injaychock testified that the Defendant was on a cell
phone almost the entire time they were in transit.

        The Defendant’s interview with Detectives Injaychock and Crumby on the afternoon
of the homicide was the first in a series of interviews in which he gradually admitted greater
culpability. In the first interview, he denied any involvement in or knowledge of the
victim’s homicide. He said he did not send anyone to hurt or scare her. The detectives asked
to see the Defendant’s cell phone, and the Defendant agreed and said his