Witness, detective accounts shared on third day of 6th Street shooting suspect trial
Editor's Note: The above video is KXAN's previous coverage of the trial.
AUSTIN (KXAN) – The trial of Sixth Street mass shooting suspect De’ondre White continued Thursday in Austin.
White, 21, is charged with one count of murder and 14 counts of aggravated assault. He pleaded not guilty Tuesday in court.
On June 12, 2021, 25-year-old Douglas Kantor was killed and more than a dozen others were injured in a mass shooting on Sixth Street. White is accused of firing into a crowd after a confrontation with a group of people.
APD Detective Called
Austin Police Detective Danny Hernandez has been one of the lead detectives in the Sixth Street mass shooting investigation. He said his work on the case started in the early morning of June 12, when he went to the hospital to interview victims injured in the shooting.
One man, Douglas John Kantor, 25, died two days after the event from “complications” from gunshot wounds, which transitioned the investigation from one of aggravated assault to a homicide. White is accused of firing a Glock semiautomatic pistol into a crowd, where two bullets hit Kantor.
KXAN's Sam Stark will be in court Thursday covering the trial. Follow his coverage below:
Hernandez testified in court that, through investigative work, he and other APD detectives were able to determine the people involved in the shooting. He said once they were identified, it was “extremely difficult to have productive conversations with the witnesses or get information from anyone involved,” he told the court.
"The loyalty to their friends was paramount to them," he continued.
Two “rival” groups comprised of teenagers and young adults traveled from Killeen to Austin on the night of Friday, June 11, 2021, and went to Sixth Street. Hernandez said that none of the people involved were documented gang members.
Further, he said the groups were not formally documented “criminal gangs” but local cliques or “micro-gangs," which, generally, have become “increasingly common,” Hernandez continued.
One group was comprised of three people: Mahkalen and Majyran Jackson, who are brothers, and Tyseshawn Degrate.
Hernandez said the other group was called the 513 group or “gang,” which included White, Jeremiah Tabb, who was indicted in late 2021 on a tampering with evidence charge – a third-degree felony, and a few others.
"When we were going through [Tabb's] Instagram account, we saw messages related to him trying to sell a Glock pistol," Hernandez said.
More Witnesses Called
Nakera Hulett, who is friends with White and Tabb, testified Thursday. Hulett was called to testify before lunch Thursday, but because she"did not know" or "did not remember" many of the state attorney's questions, she was asked to review her interview with APD from 2021 and return in the afternoon.
Since Hultett was not being cooperative, the judge granted attorneys the ability to ask leading questions -- attorneys are only able to do this when it is difficult to get a testimony and the witness is "hostile."
The state has accused White of changing his appearance following the incident.
Hulett said she didn’t remember or know if White changed his appearance after the shooting, but the State attorneys brought forward group chat text messages where they discussed changing his hair. Still, Hullet said she didn’t remember discussing White altering his hairstyle
A member of White, Hulett's group chat sent a message saying someone died the night they went to Sixth Street - the night of the shooting. “Dem dreads gotta go bro," Hulett replied to the group.