Lawyers painted two different pictures Tuesday on what happened when Jediah “JuJu” Perry was shot dead in his girlfriend’s car on 5th Avenue in Gary.
Deputy Prosecutor Tara Villarreal said in opening arguments that Rahmere Dunn killed Perry, 21, while he was buying marijuana from Dunn. Afterward, Dunn tried to delete their Facebook messages leading up to the shooting.
It was a “drug deal gone wrong,” she said.
Defense lawyer Lonnie Randolph II disagreed, saying it was self-defense. Perry tried to enlist a cousin to rob Dunn, he said. Perry held a gun to his head in the car and Dunn had no choice but to shoot him.
“It was not a drug deal gone wrong,” he told jurors. “It was a robbery that went bad.”
Dunn, now 25, of Whiting and formerly East Chicago, stands trial this week. He is charged with murder in Perry’s Nov. 12, 2021 death. He has pleaded not guilty.
Perry was shot five times in the head inside a car in front of Kelly’s Soul Food, 5025 W. 5th Ave., charges allege.
Lawrence Kelly, the restaurant’s owner, testified he called 911 around closing time after noticing the Civic had been parked outside with the lights on for “hours” — at least since 4 p.m.
Prosecutors played different segments of security footage. One part appeared to show Dunn jumping out of Perry’s white Honda Civic, running back to his Chrysler 300, then taking off.
On cross-examination, he told Randolph he didn’t hear or see the shooting.
Earlier, LaDonna Reed, Perry’s mother, said she last talked to him about a week before the shooting, telling him he should “watch people” he hung around with. A family member told her there was a shooting and she helped the coroner’s office identify her son’s body.
Police were called at 8:39 p.m. Nov. 12, 2021 where officers found Perry unresponsive inside his white Honda Civic leaning against the driver’s side window.
Security video appeared to show Perry circling the block, then pulling up next to Dunn’s Chrysler 300 at 4:53 p.m.
The man, later identified as Dunn, wore a reflective vest when he got out of the 300 and jumped inside Perry’s car.
The man in the vest went back into his car before grabbing something from his vehicle, charges state. He then went back into Perry’s car before he suddenly got out, hopped back into his car and sped off on 5th Avenue around 4:57 p.m., the affidavit states.
Police were tipped via a screenshot of Dunn’s Facebook profile that he was meeting with Perry before his death.
Investigators traced Dunn’s car via local road license plate reader systems and obtained footage that his car — with unique features like black rims and a panoramic moon roof — was in the area around the time of Perry’s murder, documents allege.
From a law enforcement database, detectives learned Dunn worked at the Lear Corp. as a forklift operator, which required him to wear a protective vest. The company said his employment ended in October 2021, documents state.
Hammond Police arrested Dunn on Nov. 30, 2021 for an unrelated crime, telling Gary Police they also found the vest in his trunk.
Cellphone records showed Dunn called Perry at 4:27 p.m. Nov. 12, 2021, just before they met, the affidavit alleges.
A search warrant for Perry’s Facebook account showed he messaged Dunn about buying marijuana just before the shooting, charges state. Dunn responded with an Apple Maps link to the soul food store as a meeting point.
“That’s u ain’t it,” Dunn wrote.
