LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The trial of two men accused of shooting and killing 16-year-old Tyree Smith at a Louisville bus stop in 2021 resumed Friday after a day off.
Demaurion Moore and Mekhi Cable are charged with murdering Smith, an Eastern High School student, in a drive-by shooting on Sept. 22, 2021, at West Chestnut and Dr. W.J. Hodge streets. Moore and Cable were 15 at the time of the shooting.
Two other children, a 13-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl, were also at the bus stop and survived after being shot. Police said Smith was not the intended target.
Cellphone location data and DNA took center stage Friday as prosecutors focused on how the defendants were connected to the case.
The prosecution said Tuesday witnesses at the bus stop saw two Black males get out of a gray Jeep Cherokee, which was reported stolen the morning of the shooting, and start firing before getting back into the car and driving away.
Through video surveillance, phone records and DNA found in the Jeep, investigators connected both Cable and Moore to the case. Investigators also found shell casings from two different guns at the scene, with one matching shell casings found in the Jeep.
Five witnesses were called to the stand, including someone with the Louisville Metro Police Department's Forensic Unit, an LMPD officer and detective, and a DNA expert.
The prosecution called a T-Mobile custodian of records to the stand Friday morning, who spoke about how the company can see the calls form their customers' phones, as well as the location.
After getting a warrant to check cellphone records, investigators found Cable's phone was pinged in the area of the bus stop shooting that morning. They also found a number that called Cable the morning of the shooting, and connected it to a stolen phone that Moore had in his possession.
The phone Moore had was pinged at the Jamestown Apartments in St. Matthews, where the Jeep that was allegedly used in the shooting was found on fire. The jury was shown photos of that Jeep after it caught fire. The officer who found it took the stand Friday. At the time, he worked for the St. Matthews Police Department, and said he noticed the car had smoke filling up inside it and stopped.
"Got out, checked the car, made sure there was no people inside, there wasn't," officer Brad Harris said. "Another officer responded, we put the fire out with the fire extinguisher. They had taken the owners manual, put it in the driver's seat, set that on fire and then was trying to catch the rest of the car on fire."
Prosecutors asked more questions about DNA that was found in the Jeep. There was a key fob and a Fanta bottle inside the vehicle that was found in an apartment complex on fire. Moore's DNA was found on the key fob, and DNA from both Moore and Cable was found on the bottle.
One of the detectives who took evidence from the Jeep walked the jury through the process when she was notified the stolen car was found.
"When that occurs, what we do in the Homicide Unit is we will draft a search warrant for that vehicle so we can then process it with our Crime Scene Unit to document any evidence," LMPD Det. Abigail Christman said.
Cable's defense attorney claims all the evidence points toward Moore, and not Cable. That includes Moore allegedly being connected to another shooting from later in 2021.
Moore's attorney claims there's no motive, and they never recovered any weapons to connect Moore to the shooting.
More witnesses connected to the case will take the stand when the trial continues Monday morning.
Smith's family testifies
The trial started with jury selection on Monday, and opening statements were held Tuesday with the first witnesses being called to the stand.
Smith's mother was one of the first witnesses called to the stand Tuesday.
"He said 'Mama, I'm shot, get here,' and so that was the first thing that replays over in my head all the time," Sherita Smith, said Tuesday. "And I'm like 'You shot?' and he said 'Somebody just came to the bus stop and shot up the bus stop, get here.'"
Smith's sister was the first to take the stand in court Wednesday. She was 14 when she and her brother walked to the bus stop that morning, as they always did. She said they were talking with friends when one of them told her to run. Once she heard the gunshots, she said she started running. When she went to turn around to find her brother, she told the jury she saw a large beige or gray car and gunfire coming from two different guns.
She said she only saw one person clearly, and the other person was on the other side of the car. Defense attorneys pressed her on that because the morning of the shooting, she only described one person. Because it was dark and wet the morning of the shooting and there were no street lights around the bus stop, she said she couldn't see the second person clearly, but she saw a second gun.
She described the first person as wearing all black, but couldn't remember if they were wearing masks. She said they were tall, but one was shorter than the other and she could tell they were both Black males. She said she wasn't in the right headspace to remember two people.
"I was thinking about my brother," she said. "That was the main thing I was worried about."
After the gunfire, Smith's sister said she tried to call her mom once she'd settled down and talked to someone in a window who said they'd call police. She ran towards her brother once her mom got there.
"I just couldn't even look at him, I just walked away and started throwing up," she said.
One student who was at the bus stop when the shooting happened testified that she heard more than 10 gunshots and started running, but it was too dark to see the car.
Louisville Metro Police officer Greg Harris also took the stand Wednesday. He was on patrol the morning of the shooting and responded to the scene. Some of his body camera footage was shown in the courtroom. A detective with the Louisville Metro Police Department's Homicide Unit also took the stand, testifying that investigators found 12 shell casings on the scene.
Copyright 2026 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.
