The Deck - Jaquan Atkins (10 of Clubs, Virginia)

Episode Date: May 15, 2024

Our card this week is Jaquan Atkins, the 10 of Clubs from Virginia. 30-year-old Jaquan had a lot going for him in the spring of 2021. He had a good job and a tight crew of friends that he performed with as part of a local rap group. But most important to him – his close-knit family: a devoted mom, little nieces and nephews who called him “Uncle Quan,” and a big brother he admired. But police believe that brother is holding a secret…If you know anything about the murder of Jaquan Atkins in 2021, you can call in a tip to the Richmond Police Department at 804-780-1000, or remain anonymous by submitting a tip through P-3 Tips – you can access that app online or download it on your smartphone.View source material and photos for this episode at: thedeckpodcast.com/jaquan-atkins Let us deal you in… follow The Deck on social media.Instagram: @thedeckpodcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @thedeckpodcast_ | @audiochuckFacebook: /TheDeckPodcast | /audiochuckllcTo apply for a Cold Case Playing Card grant through Season of Justice, please visit www.seasonofjustice.org The Deck is hosted by Ashley Flowers. Instagram: @ashleyflowersTikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkieTwitter: @Ash_FlowersFacebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF  Text Ashley at 317-733-7485 to talk all things true crime, get behind the scenes updates, and more!

Our card this week is Jaquan Atkins, the 10 of clubs from Virginia. 30-year-old Jaquan had a lot going for him in the spring of 2021. He had a good job and a tight crew of friends that he performed with as a part of a local rap group. But most important to him, his close-knit family, a devoted mom, little nieces and nephews who called him Uncle Quan, and a big brother that he admired. But police believe that that brother is holding a secret. I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is the deck. Music Detective Mark Godwin, his supervisor, and his three partners were dispatched to the Westwood community in Richmond just before 7.30 p.m. on March 21, 2021.

They'd gotten a call about a man who'd been found dead on his living room couch, a possible suicide. Here's Detective Godwin from the Richmond Police Department. When you first came in the door, nothing was in disarray. There was no signs of a struggle. There was immediately no firearm we observed at the scene. There was very little blood because it would be referred to as a blowout, which the gunshot wound comes in and it blows out the back of your skull. So all of the drainage from the blood would have been behind him.

So it would not have been visibly noticeable unless you moved behind him to be able to see that he had been shot. The fact that there was no weapon left behind was odd, but that didn't automatically rule out suicide. Maybe the roommate who'd found him had hid it somewhere. I mean, Detective Godwin's seen it before. Even if a witness is innocent,

it's not totally uncommon for someone to get rid of a gun or other evidence before police arrive. Other than the gun, though, nothing else seemed to be missing or amiss. There was some money on the kitchen table. Jaquan had a wallet with over $200 in his back pocket. In his bedroom, there was a bulletproof, a ballistic vest. There was also a firearm in plain view.

Jaquan had what appeared to be, I would say, diamond earrings on the nightstand. There was also some other miscellaneous jewelry on the nightstand as well. And there was a small amount of marijuana also in the nightstand. That also, when individuals break into a residence, they're going to take these items. None of those things were touched.

None of the drawers, the rooms, nothing was in disarray. Where Jaquan was found, there was an ottoman. And on top of the ottoman, there was a drink, which was a tequila drink still sitting there. So we knew it was not any type of a struggle that took place because that drink would have fallen off of the ottoman. One, Jaquan's foot was still propped up on the ottoman. And three, when I looked right beside the ottoman,

there was a large caliber casing, which was a 223 casing. Speaking to his colleagues, it's easy to recognize Detective Godwin's a respected seasoned professional. I mean, this guy's been around the block a time or two. Close to 20 years into his law enforcement career, he knows what they say about making assumptions. So even though it came over dispatch as possibly self-inflicted, he roped off the

area as a crime scene anyway. I mean, you could say he just had a hunch. The only thing we collected from the scene was the casing. We swabbed the doors. We took a couple of firearms that were located in the residence and some prescription pills because at the time there was nothing else that had any evidentiary value outside of his cell phone.

We also were able to seize his cell phone. Now to avoid confusion, none of the guns that they took from the house outside of his cell phone. We also were able to seize his cell phone." Now to avoid confusion, none of the guns that they took from the house were believed to be the one used on Jaquan. They didn't match the casings found by his body, and they were found in a separate room. And all the guns collected were thought to belong to either Jaquan or his roommate, who was also his cousin, Richard Atkins. And speaking of Richard, detectives were quick to get his statement.

He told police that he'd left the house the night before to work an overnight shift at VCU Medical Center, where he was a custodian. And he said that's the last time he interacted with Jaquan. When he got home the next morning, he'd found him dead, although not right away. Richard disclosed that when he returned home from work on Sunday morning, he had actually walked right by Jaquan

on the couch, not once, but twice, before realizing Jaquan wasn't just taking a snooze. So he said he came home that morning roughly around 9 a.m. And when he came home, Jaquan was asleep on the couch. He saw the tequila, Jaquan was asleep on the couch. He saw the tequila. Jaquan was known to drink. So he said that he felt as though he was drunk. He had passed out on the couch, and he went in the back.

So when Richard came into the house, he saw Jaquan asleep. He changed clothes, went out of the back door to where his vehicle was parked. He got into his vehicle. He went and washed it, and then later he said he didn't want to come back and drive his vehicle and get it dirty because of the conditions of their driveway,

which was, it was muddy out front. So he parked his vehicle at his mother's house and he walked back home. When he walked back home, he walked past Jaquan, observed that he was still asleep, but Jaquan was deceased. He had worked VCU all night long, so he went into the bedroom and he went to sleep.

I've seen a photo of the crime scene, and though this might sound unbelievable, he truly just looks asleep, at least from the angle I have. There isn't blood on the wall, and he's just kind of slumped over to the side on a really dark couch that is masking maybe any blood that might be present. So his cousin just let him sleep all day.

It wasn't until around 715 that night, when a call from Jaycon's half-brother Eric made Richard take a closer look at his cousin. Eric Atkins called him, asked him about some car keys, and he said that he went out front, he called for Jaquan. Jaquan didn't answer. He told Eric that he wasn't answering, and he said by the time he discovered Jaquan was deceased, Eric was knocking on the front door. Eric hadn't been there when police arrived. Apparently, he had been busy breaking the bad news to some of their other family members

who are now starting to gather outside the house. We explained to the family it was going to be a death investigation and impossible suicide, but we didn't have the firearm to prove that. And we were imploring to the family that if it was Richard or Eric that may have taken a firearm from the scene, please get that to us. Jaquan's aunt, Yolanda West, was there that night to comfort her sister. But she doesn't remember personally being told about the initial possibility of suicide. Just that maybe it was a drug overdose of some kind.

Suicide was never something the family would have expected. He always had a bubbly personality, always willing to help. He was that guy that anyone would be proud to say, that's my son. He did well in school, he got along with his schoolmates. He was loved so much that fortunately he was crowned Mr. Armstrong his senior year. He was the little guy in the neighborhood that would help with getting groceries in, cut grass, run errands, get medicine.

As for me, he always looked out for me if I needed something done, he was always there to assist us." Yolanda encouraged her sister to go home. What she didn't want for her sister was the last memory of her son to be of him being wheeled out on a stretcher. And after that night, she's been running point for the family ever since. So while she was helpful in providing some background, it was really Eric that police

were eager to get some one-on-one time with. Not only had Eric come by the house looking for his keys around the same time that Richard realized Jaquan was dead, but according to Richard, Jaquan, Eric, and some other friends had been hanging out Saturday night before he left for work. So that meant Eric had been one of the last people to see Jaquan alive. While still at the scene, Detective Godwin spotted Eric with a group of friends down the street from the house watching everything from afar. So he started walking in his direction. Eric walked to a vehicle, got in real fast, closed the door, and the person who was driving

the vehicle ended up pulling off with Eric in the vehicle. He did not make a statement that night. And that night we looked at it as, okay, maybe he's a little emotional. That's his brother, and not everybody wants to speak with the police. Detective Godwin hoped that the answers he was looking for lied with Jaquan himself. I attended the autopsy, learned from Dr. Bowers that the wound path for Jaquan's trajectory, that was right above the left eye,

it was a slight upward trajectory, and it was an exit wound to the back of the head. I asked Dr. Bowers, could this have been a self-inflicted gunshot wound? She immediately ruled that out. She said that in order to have this kind of gunshot wound with no sitting or stippling, he would have had to have the gun way out here and it to fire, striking him. And then we would have to ask what happened to the gun, one.

And two, his arms wouldn't have been that long to be able to maneuver the firearm in such a manner to cause that self-inflicted injury. So at that point, the autopsy was ruled indeterminate for now until additional evidence could be brought to her before she classified as a homicide or suicide. — Duda rigor mortis having already been in its late stages when investigators arrived. And based on body temperature,

the medical examiner was able to deduce that Jaquan's time of death was likely between 5.30 and 6 a.m. — This section of the city, there is not a lot of violence, there's not a lot of gunfire, there's not a lot of crime in this particular area of the city there is not a lot of violence, there's not a lot of gunfire, there's not a lot of crime in this particular area of the city. So hearing a firearm that time of night would have been alarming we felt with anyone in the community. So we knocked on doors trying to obtain this information

and no one saw or heard anything and we believe that that sound was compressed inside of the residents. And individuals that may have heard it at four or five in the morning, they were probably asleep. So it was a bust on witnesses. But Detective Godwin still hadn't spoken with Eric. Maybe he could provide more information on what happened the night before Jaquan died.

On day two, I ended up speaking with Eric briefly on the phone. Eric told me that he did not understand why I wanted to speak to him. I informed him that you were one of the last individuals that saw your brother alive. He said that he did not have a statement to make, and if I wanted to talk to him, I would have to speak with his lawyer. Investigators hadn't initially been super suspicious of Eric. He and Jaquan were half-brothers, known to be good buddies, and there wasn't any known beef between them. So Detective Godwin just wanted Eric to help him establish a better timeline and find out

who else Jaquan had been hanging out with that night. But now, Detective Godwin's alarm bells were going off. Why was Eric making things so difficult? From what police had heard from family members, Eric and Jaquan shared the same dad, Warren Atkins. So yeah, they were technically half-brothers, Eric born a decade before Jaquan. But according to their aunt Yolanda, that didn't matter. There was no halves in this family. Jaquan's mom, Aljewanna, considered Eric like her own son, even helped take care of his kids while he had served about 14 years in prison on a federal narcotics trafficking charge before recently being released on probation.

Aljewanna and Eric share a birthday, which was always a big deal for her. You know, she always made a big to-do about their birthday, their birthday. He called her mom, she called him son. It was no half brother, step brother. I looked at him as a nephew. I never said that was my sister husband's child. I always said that's my nephew. And I felt like we had a good relationship. Jay Kwan idolized his big brother. He adored his big brother. Of course, his brother had been incarcerated. So when he came home, that was the highlight of Jaquan's life. My brother home, my brother home, my brother home. You know, Jaquan was, in my opinion, more matured. Because like

I said, Jaquan had an old soul. You know, he was close with his father, close with his brother, close with his sisters, close with all of us. On day one, there wasn't a single family member who was looking at Eric. But as the first week of the investigation went on, Eric started giving off weird vibes. One instance when we went to the funeral home, my niece LaKesha and my niece Shannon and myself, we accompanied him, you know, to make the arrangements to verify that it had actually happened because my sister had a very difficult time even accepting the fact that her son was deceased.

So the funeral home allowed us to come over to view him, to give her the comfort of knowing that it was actually true. He never showed any signs of emotion, no sadness, no nothing. He never tried to assist his father or his sisters. This isn't just suspicion coming to light with the benefit of hindsight. Yolanda said at one point she saw Eric sleeping

during Jaquan's funeral, at least until it was his turn to view Jaquan's body. When he walked up to the casket to view Jaquan's funeral, at least until it was his turn to view Jaquan's body. When he walked up to the casket to view Jaquan, he bent over in the casket and he whispered some to Jaquan. He had a conversation with Jaquan before he walked off and sat down. No one knows what words Eric whispered into his ear. He never said them out loud to anyone. If secrets were going to play a part in this

investigation, Detective Godwin knew his only shot at solving this was going to be hard proof. Physical evidence. He needed to find the gun. I did an A011, which is a firearm trace for individuals. I did Eriks. Even though I knew he couldn't purchase a firearm, I still wanted to have my due diligence to say I did that and I also did one for Richard. I ended up discovering that Jaquan had purchased a.223 assault rifle. Sound familiar? Detectives found a.223 assault rifle casing at the scene, but they didn't collect a.223 assault rifle from the house. So where was it?

Close to two weeks after Detective Godwin learned about the gun, the analysis on Jaquan's cell phone came back. They could see that he'd been texting with a friend of his named China, and his last text went out to her at 1.40 a.m. Now, these texts were pretty mundane. They didn't provide any insight into what had happened to Jaekwon. But they did serve to build out the timeline of his night more, knowing that he was alive and well around 2 a.m.

But just as informative as the calls and texts that were on his phone were the ones that weren't. There was nothing from Antonio or Curtis, two of his friends in his rap group. Guys who Detective Godwin would come to learn typically spent every Sunday cooking out with Jaquan and Eric. Leading up to this, the prior Sunday, which would have been the 14th, they had a cookout.

This Sunday, they didn have been the 14th, they had a cookout. This Sunday, they didn't have this cookout, and even though Jaquan was the one who was spearhead the cookouts, no one called, and this did not seem bizarre to anyone. And that was alarming to me, which also Eric was right around the street from his brother, and knowing that his brother would normally call around

4 p.m. to try to get everyone together to come over for the cookout, that didn't stand out to you. Detective Godwin wanted to sit down with both Antonio and Curtis, who were said to have known Jaquan best. Each of them were willing to talk. They said they'd both been hanging out with Jaquan

earlier in the evening, but neither of them had stayed past midnight. Godwin pressed and asked them more about the dynamic between Jaquan and his half-brother. They never saw them argue. There was no disagreements or anything negative that was displayed between Jaquan or Eric, even if they were having any type of issues with one another. They said it was hard for them to imagine Eric intentionally hurting J. Kwon. They hadn't observed any falling outs between the two recently, let alone ever. But at the same time, it was difficult to tell if they were holding something back. I could tell that they had a lot of love for J. Kwon. And I think the allegiance piece was divided right down the middle when you

couple in that they're not, I would say, people that could stand up for themselves. Eric is more sort of a, I would label him as an antagonistic bully. So they would have a reason to be intimidated by him. You don't have to love him, but also be afraid of him." It was totally possible these guys knew more than they were letting on. But based off Jaquan's texts and calls that night, it did appear that they were at least telling the truth about not partying with him and Eric during those early morning hours when Jaquan was killed. They hadn't chatted at least via phone about meeting up to hang out or anything like that. Now, Eric was still remaining silent.

But maybe his phone records would do the talking for him. Detective Godwin subpoenaed those and found that Eric was awake and actively using his phone in the early morning hours on Sunday. In fact, he'd made several calls to a woman named Brianna. Finding Brianna was a huge break for Detective Godwin because it turns out that she'd been at J. Kwan's house in the hours before he died.

She got there sometime after two in the morning. She had a friend with her, Janice. Janice came over to see J. Kwan. It's Eric, J. Kwan, Brianna, and Janice. They are the only four individuals in the residence. Brianna and Eric had been seeing each other on and off, mostly just hooking up. But it was the first time Jaquan and Janice had ever met.

Partying, having a good time. And after three in the morning, Brianna, Eric, they go over to the Waffle House on Broad Street. She said that they're going there, they're arguing, because Eric is not really being as affectionate as she would like him to be. Once they get to the Waffle House, they park inside the building, they talk for a few minutes.

She goes inside and she orders her food. She reaches back out to Eric and asks him if he wants anything, and Eric texts her what he would like her to get while she is inside the store. Surveillance video from inside the Waffle House confirmed Brianna was there. But apparently, Eric waited in the car. After they left the Waffle House, they go back to the residence. Eric gets out of the car. He goes inside of the house.

Brianna calls Janice and says, Hey, I'm ready to go. Janice comes out of the house and Jaquan walks her to the house. Brianna calls Janice and says, hey, I'm ready to go. Janice comes out of the house and Jaquan walks her to the door. He gives her a hug, say their salutations. She gets in the car, they leave. This is close to five o'clock in the morning. So at this time of morning, there is only two people in the residence,

which is Eric and Jaquan. Detective Godwin spoke to Brianna and Janice separately, and still their stories matched up. They had the same recollection of what they had all been up to that night and the timing of it all. But since Brianna and Eric had some type of relationship, they wondered if she may have known

even just a little bit more than what she was saying. So they decided to bring her in for a polygraph. There was three questions. Were you in any way involved in the death of Jaquan? She said no. Do you know for sure if Eric had anything to do with the death of Jaquan? She said no.

And did you purposely withhold information from the police regarding the death of Jaquan? She said no. So to questions, the first question and the last question, deception was detected. After the test, investigators told her she failed, and it was time to come clean if she was holding back any information. She said that she did see Eric with a gun in his waistband that night. She said that it had a laser on it. She said it was a Glock firearm. She said, and at one point she was in the living room and he called her to the back room,

which was Jaquan's bedroom. And Jaquan always stored his gun under the bed closer to the closet. And she said when he called her, she came into Jaquan's room and stood in the doorway and Eric had taken the firearm from under the bed. He's room and stood in the doorway and Eric had taken the firearm from under the bed. He had taken it out of the box and he had pointed it at her. And she said, boy don't point that gun at me. She turned around and walked back into the living room. She said when she came back down the hallway, Eric was placing the gun back in the box and he put it down on the floor and that is when he came back out into the living room when they were actually seated. So having her tell us that she saw Eric with not only a gun in his waistband but possessing

the firearm that possibly killed Jaquan, we knew that that was that two-two-three rifle because Jaquan only owned one. If you can recall, Eric was a convicted felon, not allowed to possess a firearm. So while there wasn't enough to detain him for Jaquan's death, with Brianna as their witness, there was now enough to get him on this. On May 24th is when I brought all of this information to the Commonwealth Attorney, and they approved for me to get a firearm felon warrant for Eric Atkins. We went to his house, he wouldn't come out. We ended up having a knocking entry. Warrant done on the house was able to take him in custody. That is when he was taken to the justice center. He

refused an interview and he was then held without bond. At that point, we were able to search the house, just found narcotics in the residence. We also towed his vehicle, and when we towed his vehicle, we were able to obtain a search warrant for that, and that is where we discovered what Brianna had described a firearm, a smaller black, black firearm with a laser on top, which, as she said, it was a red laser. This weapon helped bolster the charge they had him on.

But they knew this wasn't the gun that they were looking for in Jaquan's case. We were also able to seize his cell phone. And when we seized his cell phone, I was able to get a search warrant and have that submitted to our computer crimes unit to be analyzed. Godwin already had Eric's cell site locations at the time, but now he had his actual cell phone in his possession. So he was finally able to download its internal contents. And what Godwin found on that phone

wasn't necessarily incriminating, but it was pretty darn close. I was also able to look at his searches. That is where he was trying to figure out about melting down a firearm. And I mentioned earlier about when I was at the initial crime scene, when I was speaking with the family And Eric was at the top of the crime scene with his cronies

So based off his web search when I'm talking to them and I approach him he was shopping on Amazon He was buying sneakers and he was looking at porn videos These are the things he's doing while his brother is down here dead." The shopping and pornographic video searches were all around 8-12 p.m. on Sunday. We're talking less than an hour after police were first called to the scene. The search about how to melt down a gun was done the very next day, on Monday. And all of that's interesting, but even more telling was the activity on Eric's phone right around the time of Jaquan's murder.

When I got the cell phone records back, I was able to plot those records. And when we plot records, mainly what it is, it just gives you geographical positioning. And I was able to look at the amount of time that Eric was at the residence and where he went shortly thereafter and looking at any patterns of areas in the surrounding Tri-Cities where he had went. And one thing that piqued my interest was, based off of

the records that I had during the timeframe requested, which was approximately two weeks, he was never out on Parham Road. He was always bumping around in the city, not in the deep part of Chesterfield, not in the deep parts of Hemrico. But after this incident happened, he made a call that morning, it was after six, to a female out in Hemrico County.

And she lived off of Parham Road and he went there shortly thereafter. The incident took place, he hung out there until after noon time. Unfortunately, Godwin has never been able to figure out the exact location of where he went on Parham Road, and he doesn't know what exactly he was doing there. But this exposed a very crucial lie Eric had told.

Remember, when Richard called 911, he mentioned Eric had come to the house looking for his keys right as he was finding out Jaquan was actually dead on the couch. Well that story Eric gave about needing to find his keys must have been a ruse because by now, detectives knew he had driven out to Parham Road earlier that morning. But I'm still saving the most suspicious detail for last. The cell phone also revealed that Eric had made calls to his and Jaquan's father, Warren, letting him know that Jaquan was dead before Richard had ever even discovered that Jaquan was actually dead on the couch and not just passed out sleeping.

The evidence was piling up against Eric, but all of it was circumstantial. And there was still one very big question no one could seem to answer. Why? None of their friends had noticed any animosity between them. But their aunt told our reporter Madison

that there may have been some underlying hard feelings at play. Well personally I had spoke with my sister and it was a couple of years before this even happened. I had told her that I felt like it was some jealousy as far as Eric and Jaquan. I felt like Eric was jealous of Jaquan and I don't know if it was because his father was with their mother and not his mother. Yolanda said there were some other family matters going on involving the house where Jaquan was killed. Apparently Jaquan had been trying to purchase that property from a family member, and Eric may have had resentment about that, but it's only speculation on her part. And listen, whys don't always make sense. Juries want a motive,

but it's actually not required to present a case in court. I mean, sometimes there isn't a real why, like in the case of an accident, which Detective Godwin suspects this might be. My theory is that night Eric was trying to be cool possessing a firearm, which was loaded. He was reckless. He pointed that firearm at Jaquan, and he accidentally killed his brother. Detective Godwin pressed on even without a solid why.

He had a theory and he had circumstantial evidence. So he compiled it all and sent the medical examiner an updated report on his investigation, which finally prompted the Emmy to officially rule his death as a homicide in June of 2021. The ruling was a great step forward, but now Detective Godwin felt like he was at a standstill. He had a lot that made Eric look guilty, but no smoking gun. All Godwin could do was keep reviewing what he already had over and over again, looking for the thing that he missed. And that's when he found it. On Jaquan's phone of all places, there was something that he was sure would be that smoking gun

he so desperately needed to break this case wide open. I'm parsing through the cell phone records, and I pull up the photographs on the phone. That is when I observed the picture that was taken by Jaquan. And in the picture, you can see Jaquan's foot on the ottoman. And on one picture, Eric is standing with the firearm, holding it with the position behind his back. Jaquan takes the picture, and is standing with the firearm, holding it with the position

behind his back. Jaquan takes the picture and there is a second picture where Eric is pointing the firearm at Jaquan and he takes the picture. Now based off of this picture and based off of the ME's finding, if you're sitting down and someone is standing up, you're looking up. So if a person is standing before you and you're looking up and they're holding a firearm, that would 100% explain the trajectory,

how Jaquan is looking up and the wound path has a slight upward trajectory. That 100% explains that along with the picture that Jaquan took with a timest stamp of 5.36 a.m. So you add that 5.36 time stamp with the ME's finding of time of death being approximately 5.30 in the morning based off of his body temperature dropping. That shrinks your timeline down within six minutes. I think that it may have been a premonition. He felt something was about to happen,

or maybe he felt it in his spirit that this was not a good idea. And if something happened to me, I have photographic proof as to what happened. Is it your belief, Detective, that literally right after that picture, he may have fired that gun? Yes, 100 percent. And 100 percent.

That is when the firearm was fired. To Detective Godwin, it seemed like these photos were snapped surreptitiously. Eric likely hadn't noticed that they were even being taken, or else he would have tried to get rid of Jaquan's phone. I mean, there's no way he would have just left it there at the scene for police to find it. I said, this is what we needed. This is what we needed to have this case put into the court.

That is exactly what I said. And I told my peers that, and I was excited to show my supervisors, and they have supported me and have backed me this entire way. But when Detective Godwin presented this new evidence to the Richmond Commonwealth Attorney's Office, they saw things differently. It's just we can't tell them what to prosecute.

They cannot tell us who to arrest. So it was very frustrating to us because we actually thought that is what we needed to have this case litigated. We were given access to one of the two photos because we actually thought that is what we needed to have this case litigated. We were given access to one of the two photos and given permission to share it with our listeners. You can see it on our blog post for this episode. There's a link to it right in the show notes. This is not something that could have been photoshopped because it's taken directly from the phone and when we obtained the phone was dead. And that timestamp is the timestamp.

So it was not in a state where it could have been manipulated. Our reporter Madison reached out to the City of Richmond's Commonwealth attorney Colette McEachin. We wanted to ask her about what's been getting in the way of being able to prosecute Jaquan's case, and what additional evidence or witnesses she might be looking for in order to move forward. Colette responded via email saying, This is an ongoing investigation and the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office does not comment on pending investigations.

Our office policy is to initiate criminal charges only when we have sufficient, admissible evidence to identify a specific individual as the perpetrator." End quote. My opinion is let 12 peers decide, you know? I personally took the family part out of it and said, let me just look at the evidence because nobody wants to see family hurt family. So I tried to just wipe the fact out that that's my nephew's.

Let me look at what the detective has. And in my heart of hearts, I feel like the detective is right. And I feel like he deserves to at least have a chance to put that before a jury. — About a year after Jaquan was murdered in 2022, there was another altercation in the Atkins family. Aljewanna Atkins, Jaquan's mom and Eric's stepmom, she went to her ex-husband Warren's house to try and speak with him about Eric. But according to Aljewanna, Eric surprised her before she could even get to the front door. Apparently, she didn't know Eric would be there.

She didn't come there to start nothing with Eric. She's seen Eric before. If she wanted to, Eric had actually been to her house since then. Allegedly, Eric made a move that made her think that he could have been reaching for a gun. So Aljewanna, who was armed herself, beat him to the draw. I feel like in my sister Heart of Hearts, she's hurting behind that because you never want to hurt your child, and that's what she looked at. But when it comes to you being hurt

and knowing that this person possibly killed your son, you're back in the corner, and he's known to have a firearm. And with him reaching in his car or doing whatever he did, I'm sorry I'm not no bad person, but I'd rather be judged by 12 than carried by six. So I probably would have did the same exact thing. He was severely injured. He had a gunshot wound to the abdomen.

When he was initially admitted, it was a life-threatening injury. Instead of trying to claim self-defense during a future trial, Aljewanna took a guilty plea agreement, home incarceration for about two years, which she's still serving today. Whatever happened between stepmom and stepson,

the near-death experience didn't inspire Eric to start talking. Detective Godwin thinks it'll take a new witness coming forward, maybe someone who Eric might have opened up to, to be able to take this case to court. Do the right thing. Talk to the detective, get it on record,

get it to court and get it over with. Cause if it was you, Jayquan would have did that for you. I don't think any of them in that little circle could have been hurt. And Jayquan wouldn't have did the right thing for them. He would have put his life on the line to come and say, well, this is what I saw, this is what I heard. And I think they owe him the same thing

because Jaquan fed them, he gave them gas money, he let them stay there when they had nowhere to stay. His only downfall, he was too loving and given to that circle. Because Eric Atkins hasn't been charged with Jaquan's murder, we wanted to give him the opportunity to give his side of the story. Our reporter got in touch with the office of Eric's attorney, Arnold Henderson. And while Eric didn't want to speak to us directly, a representative for his team got back to us and said,

At this point, he is just trying to move forward, still grieving the loss of his brother while being wrongly accused of his murder. They also say Eric is still recovering after dealing with the physical and mental pain of being shot by his stepmother. If I was to talk to Eric and he could hear me, I would tell him that the easiest and the only thing I think that he could do to give everyone closure is to say what happened inside the house that night. Because it's tearing his family apart. Not just this generation, but generations to come. There's going to be that divide, because a lot of family members, they love Jaquan. And it's not saying that they're not going to love you for making a mistake, but you

can't compound it by pretending that this didn't happen, because it really did. Detective Godwin said, given his theory of the crime, if they ever got the chance to bring charges, he would likely advocate for manslaughter. If you know anything about the murder of Jaquan Atkins in 2021, you can call in a tip to the Richmond Police Department at 804-780-1000. Or you can remain anonymous by submitting a tip through P3Tips.

You can access that app online or download it on your smartphone. The Deck is an AudioChuck production with theme music by Ryan Lewis. To learn more about The deck and our advocacy work, visit thedeckpodcast.com. So what do you think Chuck? Do you approve? Woo!