The dying pleas of 22-year-old shooting victim Doricky “Ricky” Harris were played in a Fayette County courtroom Monday as a murder trial for his alleged killer began.
“Don’t let me die,” Harris said.
The posthumous testimony came from body camera footage captured by Lexington Police Department officers who responded to the shooting at a Coolavin Apartment on West Sixth Street in September 2022.
Bobby Hubbard, 24, of Mississippi, is charged with murder for allegedly shooting Harris.
Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Nikolas Fegenbush presented opening statements Monday, claiming Hubbard entered the apartment and shot Harris once before he fled.
When police found Harris, told them the person who shot him was a stranger.
“I am dying,” Harris can be heard saying in the body camera footage played in court. “I don’t know why — I just opened the door and he shot me.”
Fegenbush said the fatal events began earlier that day, when police were called to the apartments — two separate times — for reports of shots fired and a suspicious subject. Police located two shell casings outside of the apartments, but did not find anyone involved in the incident to speak with officers.
Harris’ girlfriend, Jada Richardson, testified she called Hubbard and told him Harris had assaulted her and fired shots earlier that day. Richardson allegedly asked Hubbard to come pick her and her child up and take her to her sister’s house in Georgetown, fearing for her safety.
Richardson said she did not know where Harris had gone after their altercation.
When he arrived, Fegenbush told jurors Hubbard snuck around the back of the apartment complex and went up the stairs before he entered into the apartment, shot at Harris and ran away to his car to take Richardson and her child to Georgetown.
The two never called police, and Fegenbush said once Hubbard was questioned by police, he told “tales and stories,” and was only concerned with “how he would get out of” his alleged involvement in Harris’ death.
“He is still not telling the truth, he still just wants to know how do I get out of this,” Fegenbush said.
Attorneys for defendant claim self defense
One of Hubbard’s defense attorneys, Kathryn Daczka, said Hubbard’s decision was one made quickly, in the dark, and out of fear for his life.
Daczka claimed there was “much more to the shooting than just opening the door and shooting him.”
They allege Harris was waiting for someone to enter the apartment.
According to defense attorneys, Hubbard came to help Richardson after she told him that Harris had shot at her earlier in the day, and she was in fear for her safety.
Hubbard arrived at the Coolavin apartment to grab formula for Richardson’s baby, and the child’s car seat. Daczka said Hubbard went toward the apartment to try and get the supplies. He was legally armed with a gun when he knocked on the door several times and received no response.
When Hubbard opened the door, he was allegedly confronted by Harris, who jumped out and scared Hubbard. That’s when Hubbard allegedly fired his gun and fled the scene, Daczka said.
“Bobby did leave, he fled,” Daczka confessed. “You are going to hear from him and hear those ‘whys’ and about that moment of terrifying fear of whether it would be him or Doricky.”
The trial and opening statements began Monday and is expected to last until Thursday.
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