May 2, 2017

Josiah's friend and members of Brothers United testifies that Josiah had Kyle in a headlock


Paris Wright, a friend of David Josiah Lawson and a member of Brothers United presented a different version of events.

He said he saw Josiah and Kyle on the grass and Josiah had Kyle in a headlock. He was concerned that Josiah might choke Kyle so he tried at first to make him let go of Kyle. Then he separated the two, and when he did that he saw Josiah bleeding.

Wright said he asked Zoellner if he had stabbed Josiah and before Zoellner could answer, Wright punched him twice in the face.


Wright also painted Josiah's girlfriend as the aggressor in the fight between her and Lily Ortega and Naiya Wilkins. When he saw her outside with two other girls, to him, it was typical behavior by Josiah's girlfriend, when she got drunk; which is be argumentative and yell.

Wright said he was the one who told people coming out of the house at 1120 Spear Avenue, that "he (Josiah) got stabbed.

Wright also acknowledged he was the one who said to Josiah, "You're leaking bro."

Wright also expressed frustration that in the immediate moments after he discovered Josiah bleeding, tried to tell people what was going on, and ran to help Elijah Chandler, who was the only one by Josiah, initially, people stood by and watched, instead of calling 911 as requested.

Wright ended up calling 911. He kept asking for an ambulance and said he was irritated because the 911 operator asked him to repeat the address, "at least 5 times."

While Wright was stoic on the stand, his testimony, particularly when he talked about Josiah, the last few minutes  of the night, trying to help his friend who was not responding and what Brothers United meant to him, were very moving.

Wright talked about holding Josiah's head in his hands and seeing Josiah foam (saliva) at the mouth. Wright's jeans were soaked with blood. They were not collected for evidence, Wright claimed APD never asked him for the jeans.

When asked how many members, at first he said 17; then corrected himself by saying 16.

It was a simple statement but very effective on describing the loss he felt with Josiah's death.

Wright also provided a couple of light hearted moments  during his testimony by his responses to Deputy District Attorney Roger Rees, which were unintentional, but provided relief from the sadness of this tragedy and many people laughed, including media.

Rees: "Do you recall seeing a Subaru?"

Wright: "It's Humboldt. I see Subarus everywhere."

Like every other witness so far, Wright said, "at no point that night did I see a knife."

1 comment:

  1. Great coverage. I started with the oldest first so I could follow the sequence of testimony. I understand what you meant (yesterday) about the high emotions...
    Sounds more like 'person or persons unknown'...the ones who kept the victim from getting timely medical help are the ones who ultimately were responsible for his death. Someone used a knife...but it was the good-for-nothings who kept necessary treatment from being given who signed their names to the death certificate. Big mouth, big ego, no soul so they can probably live with their actions, think it no big deal. Disgusting.
    I know you report John so I don't expect you to give your personal opinion but thank you for the reporting and for letting us express out feelings.

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