11-17-09 Lyson on trial Odessa American

November 17, 2009 9:25 PM
BY JIM MUSTIAN
Last year, Ryan Adam Moon, 26, was killed in a fight Odessa authorities said began over owed money. The question posed to an Ector County jury this week is who killed him.
According to the nurses who tried futilely to save his life, Moon implicated Terrance L. Jackson of Odessa — the man who reportedly owed Moon money — in one of his dying breaths on a hospital bed.
But the man on trial this week and facing murder charges is 31-year-old Christopher David Lyson. Prosecutors and an eyewitness say Lyson came to Jackson’s aid during the fight, which occurred in front of Jackson’s mother’s mobile home at 707 Bunche Ave.
Jackson is being held in the Ector County Detention Center in connection with property theft charges and could not be reached for comment.
Moon was stabbed five times in the chest and abdomen, court documents show. After the fight, his girlfriend, Jamayea Brockett, 26, of Odessa, rushed him to Odessa Regional Medical Center where he died about 30 minutes later.
Brockett testified Tuesday she heard Moon say it was Lyson who delivered the fatal blows.
“‘Your homeboy didn’t have to stab me like that,’” she recalled her boyfriend telling Jackson.
But Lyson’s defense lawyer, Dusty Gallivan accused Brockett of changing her story from the night of the stabbing. He said Brockett did not tell authorities about Lyson’s exchange with Jackson in her written statement or in a taped interview with detectives.
“You’ve told at least two versions of what happened,” Gallivan said, adding Brockett made no effort to correct the nurses’ statements.
Gallivan also pointed out the fight happened about midnight and the lighting was too poor for Brockett to see exactly what happened.
As for a murder weapon, Brockett said she did not see any knife that night. Assistant District Attorney Justin Cunningham said before the trial the state had not recovered the weapon believed to be used in the stabbing. But prosecutors intend to introduce photographs of two knives reportedly found in Lyson’s backpack. Cunningham said the knives could show Lyson’s tendency to carry dangerous weapons.
Gallivan made a motion to exclude the photographs before the trial began Tuesday, arguing they would be too prejudicial for the jury because one of the weapons bears the letters “KKK.” Both knives were tested for DNA and not linked to the alleged stabbing.
Judge Denn Whalen said he would rule on Gallivan’s motion later in the trial. Testimony is scheduled to resume this morning at 9 a.m. in 70th District Court.