JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Testimony resumed Monday in a highly anticipated Jacksonville murder trial, after the jury heard last week from three key witnesses called by prosecutors.
Jacksonville rapper Hakeem Robinson, 26, better known by his stage name “Ksoo,” and co-defendant Leroy Whitaker, 24, his cousin, are standing trial in a case that’s drawn national attention — and stirred deep tensions in the city’s rap and gang communities.
Both face murder and gun charges in the 2020 shooting death of 23-year-old Charles “Lil Buck” McCormick Jr.
Hakeem’s father, Abdul Robinson Sr., also known as “Blue,” took the stand Monday afternoon to testify against his son on behalf of the state.
In a dramatic moment during testimony, Robinson Sr., 54, was asked if he recognized the person captured in a video recording showing the shooting of McCormick.
Robinson Sr. took a long pause, appeared to get emotional, and said, “My son.”
“What’s your son’s name?” the prosecutor asked.
“Hakeem,” he responded.
Shannon Schott, a Jacksonville attorney not associated with the case, says while it might seem rare for a parent to testify against their own child, based on the law it’s not out of the realm of possibility.
“In Florida, we don’t have any parent/child confidentiality,” Schott said. “There’s spousal, there’s clergy, there’s attorney, there’s doctor, but there’s no parent/child.”
Robinson Sr., who was arrested Sept. 10, 2020, and accused of helping Whitaker and another man escape after the shooting, was asked why he chose to testify against his son and another family member.
“I got some health issues,” he said. “I got two 6-year-olds and an 8-year-old daughter.”
Robinson Sr. said he wants to take his daughter to the daddy-daughter dance, but he keeps “letting her down.”
“I just found out June 25 that my kidneys is failing rapidly,” he said.
He acknowledged that testifying in the case against his son and his son’s cousin will make his life harder both in and out of jail.
He said cooperating in the case is the “hardest decision I’ve had to make in my life.”
Robinson Sr. was asked by the prosecutor who had the most desire to go after McCormick based on a diss song he had created and he said his sons, Hakeem Robinson and Abdul Robinson Jr.
“They didn’t like it,” he said about the song.
Robinson Sr. said both his sons were members of the group ATK and were enemies with a rival group, 6Block, of which McCormick was a member.
According to Robinson Sr., when asked by a defense attorney, in exchange for testifying in this case and another case as part of a plea deal, he will now face a maximum of 20 years in prison instead of a potential maximum of 60 years.
The attorney for Hakeem Robinson painted Robinson Sr. as someone who was taking a deal to save himself.
While it doesn’t necessarily count as making a deal with the state, Schott says testifying in cases like this can help in future court hearings.
“If someone testifies willingly against another individual, when that person who testified is sentenced, it can be favorable in a future sentencing hearing when you cooperate,” Schott explained.
Testimony began Monday with an FBI expert giving the jury a technical tutorial about how cellphones work with cellphone towers, how that information is recorded by cellphone companies and how those records can be used by investigators to pinpoint the relative locations of cellphones. The expert could not definitively put Hakeem Robinson’s phone in the area of the shooting on that day.
He was followed by a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office latent fingerprint examiner, who testified that a print lifted from the slide of a gun found in a stolen Nissan matched Hakeem Robinson.
During cross-examination, Robinson’s attorney clarified with the fingerprint examiner that she could not testify as to when Robinson left the print on the gun.
Getaway driver testifies
The star witness for the prosecution, Dominique “Butta” Barner, took the stand Friday afternoon.
Barner, 31, was offered a plea deal after admitting to driving the car on the day McCormick was killed. Barner testified that Robinson wanted to kill McCormick, known as rapper “Buck,” for making a diss song against Willie Addison, the stepson of Hakeem Robinson’s father, who was killed in a drive-by shooting in 2019.
The song was played for the jury in court on Friday.
Barner said he found McCormick’s address on the Duval County Clerk of Court website and later drove by his apartment along with Abdul Robinson Jr., Hakeem Robinson, and Whitaker.
Barner was asked by the prosecution why they wanted to know where McCormick lived.
“Basically, so we can, you know, handle up after that,” he said. “Get everything in motion, like set something up.”
“To accomplish what?” the prosecutor asked.
“Kill McCormick,” Barner responded.
Barner then testified that on the day McCormick was killed, he, Hakeem Robinson and Whitaker waited for hours outside McCormick’s apartment and then followed him to a shopping plaza in a stolen Nissan Altima.
He testified in detail about what he said happened next.
Barner said he parked near McCormick’s car and came up with a plan for Hakeem Robinson to shoot McCormick when he got back into his car to leave, so they could escape quickly. But Hakeem Robinson didn’t wait, Barner said.
Right when McCormick came out of the staffing agency, Hakeem Robinson jumped out of the car and started shooting at McCormick as he tried to run away, Barner testified.
“What did Hakeem Robinson do?” the prosecutor asked.
“Chased him,” Barner said.
“And then did what?” the prosecutor asked.
“Killed him,” Barner said.
Barner said he didn’t actually see Hakeem Robinson kill McCormick because they ran around the side of the building.
Barner testified that McCormick was killed exactly one year after Addison’s murder. Barner said Abdul Robinson Jr. was also injured in the shooting that killed Addison.
Barner said after the shooting, he sped off with Hakeem Robinson and Whitaker, but a police officer quickly spotted them and a chase ensued.
Barner said he eventually crashed in the area of Townsend Boulevard and all three jumped out of the car, leaving guns behind, as evidenced in scene photographs.
Hakeem Robinson went one way, and Barner and Whitaker went another way, jumping fences and eventually ending up in a woman’s house, he said. After briefly holding the woman hostage, Barner testified that the two were picked up by Abdul Robinson Sr., also known as “Blue,” and on the way to his house, they told him what happened.
Barner was arrested later that day and accused of the home invasion.
Hakeem’s father, Abdul Robinson Sr., was later arrested and accused of helping them escape after the shooting.
In a dramatic twist, Robinson Sr. later identified his son as the shooter after viewing dashcam footage of the incident. He’s now expected to testify against his sons and nephew in court.
On cross-examination of Barner, defense attorneys questioned his credibility and keyed in on the fact that Barner lied to police when he was first brought in for questioning and didn’t tell them about the shooting and denied taking anything from the home when he was trying to escape.
Defense attorneys also had Barner testify that he took a plea deal in two murder cases and testified to avoid life sentences and now could be sentenced to 20 years.
Whitaker’s defense attorney, Julia Schlax, said Barner is a well-known paid assassin who is known to testify and cut deals with the state.
Other Day 3 testimony
The first witness to take the stand on Friday was a woman who dated a cousin of Hakeem Robinson and Abdul Robinson Jr.
Robinson Jr. and Hakeem Robinson are brothers.
Robinson Jr. is also charged with McCormick’s murder and will be tried separately.
The woman testified she drove to pick up Hakeem Robinson at an apartment complex in Arlington the day McCormick was murdered.
She told the state she was woken up from her sleep by her boyfriend and found Adul Robinson Jr. also in her Arlington home, which is about a mile away from the shopping plaza where McCormick was murdered.
She then said she was asked to pick up Hakeem Robinson from the apartment complex on Arlington Expressway, which she says she did, then drove back to her home without speaking with Hakeem Robinson, before going back to bed.
She said she stopped dating her boyfriend shortly after this happened.
The woman was then cross-examined by Whitaker’s attorney, who emphasized the witness never spent any time with Whitaker, although she knew who he was.
During cross-examination with Hakeem Robinson’s attorney, the attorney pointed out that the woman never went to the police after the murder, and it was not until April of 2022 that the witness claimed she knew something about the case, after receiving a subpoena from the State Attorney’s Office.
The attorney also pressed the woman on what she knew about the events that unfolded on the day of the murder in January 2020.
Attorney: “When did you know that there was a murder? You’ve had to have known when you saw the news later that day. Within 24 hours, you knew that the murder happened, and it involved your boyfriend, right?
Woman: “I didn’t know for sure. I just saw the death of Charles McCormick on the news.”
Attorney: “At the strip mall right around from your house right, the one where you claim you heard gunshots from your house, right?”
Woman: “I never said I heard any gunshots.”
Attorney: “Because you were asleep all morning right, and can’t testify to anything that happened at your house before you woke up?”
Woman: “Correct.”
Attorney: “But you picked up the shooter and you helped him get away, right?”
Woman: “I picked up Hakeem Robinson, that’s who I picked up.”
Attorney: “And they’re claiming he is the shooter, right?”
Woman: “Yes.”
Attorney: “You picked him up and helped him get away and evade capture?”
Woman: “I guess, if that’s what you want to say. I was just picking somebody up.”
Attorney: “Because if you claim you didn’t know anything, then you can’t get charged with accessory after the fact, right?”
Woman: “I didn’t know anything.”
The next person to take the stand was Jason Latham, a certified forensic video examiner who assisted in the McCormick case.
He conducted a forensic video review of a dash cam that recorded the murder.
This was done by taking 3D laser scans of the crime scene and the suspects to collect data to create scaled models that could be compared to the images in the dash cam.
Latham said based on his analysis, the shooter was at least as tall as the other suspect in the dash cam video.
“It is my professional opinion based on my training and my experience and the results of the body morphology analysis that Leroy Whitaker and Domonique Barner could be eliminated as possible candidates for the shooter,” Latham said.
He also said, based on that same analysis, Hakeem Robinson could not be excluded as the possible shooter.
Day 2 testimony
The first witness to take the stand on Thursday was a woman who worked at a staffing agency at the Dames Pointe Plaza on Merrill Road, where McCormick Jr. was shot on Jan. 15, 2020.
She described the moments leading up to the shooting, as McCormick left the business after receiving his job assignment and walked to his car.
“As he was leaving, there was an individual approaching. As he proceeded to walk off of the sidewalk, he recognized someone coming towards him. He looked back and turned and started to take off running,” the witness said.
Prosecutors then played the frantic 911 call made by that witness, who described a shooter wearing a black mask and skull cap running across the parking lot. She also said McCormick was lying on the ground and not moving.
Despite the moment of chaos, the caller said she caught a glimpse of the shooter.
“He has a mask on, he has a skull cap, he’s running across the parking lot,” she said.
An off-duty JSO officer, another state witness, testified that minutes later, he saw a silver Nissan speed away from the scene.
RELATED | Attorney for Jacksonville rapper ‘Ksoo’ may seek civil suit due to alleged jail conditions
He followed the car, later identifying a man in all black getting out, possibly holding a rifle. But the defense said neither witness could see the shooter’s face and questioned their descriptions.
Another woman who took the stand Thursday described finding two men standing in her Arlington home. She said they held her down and didn’t let her leave, then took clothes and a cellphone from the home before getting into a Charger-style vehicle. She described the two men as “tattoo dude” and “squirrelly dude.” She said the man with the tattoos had “1993″ tattooed on his arm.
She identified Dominique Barner, who was born in 1993 and is now a state witness, but said she never saw the other man’s face, who prosecutors say is Whitaker.
Defense attorneys argued that their client, Robinson, stands well over 6 feet, while multiple witnesses estimated the gunman was much shorter.
Whitaker’s father was in court Thursday, as well as the families of Robinson and McCormick. McCormick’s family didn’t want to speak, but Whitaker’s father spoke on behalf of the Whitaker and Robinson families. He said in any case, he wants people to be held accountable, but he wants to see evidence.
“We are just going to wait for the outcome and see how it’s going to be. I’m going to keep my head up and my chest out,” Leroy Whitaker Sr. said.
Day 1 testimony
Opening statements began on Wednesday with the state explaining the evidence that the jurors would see as they consider whether to find Robinson and Whitaker guilty in the case.
Assistant State Attorney Joel Cooper argued that McCormick’s affiliations with local rap groups made him Robinson’s target.
“One of the traditions of both groups is producing rap music, drill rap, diss songs, that make fun of or talk disrespectfully about members of their ops,” Cooper said. “Charles McCormick became a target, an easy target. This was about sending a message because not only was it personal, but it’s about respect, and we aren’t going to let our ops sing songs like that, not about our family. That is why Charles McCormick was targeted.”
The first witness for the state was on the stand on Wednesday. He asked not to be shown on camera. However, dash cam footage from his car showed the moment the shooting happened.
Whitaker’s attorney, Julie Schlax, argued against his involvement in the shooting, mentioning that Barner would convince the jury that he was innocent.
“There will be no question whatsoever… Leroy Whitaker did not pull the trigger. Leroy Whitaker had nothing to do with the death of Charles McCormick. That’s what the evidence will show," Whitaker’s attorney told the courtroom.
Robinson’s attorney, Tara Kawass, turned her comments to the jury, asking them to “ignore” the descriptions that have placed Robinson as the shooter.
“Ignore the descriptions given by each and every person that saw the shooter,” she said to the jury. “Discredit them. Don’t believe them.”
Barner was also mentioned during the opening statement by Kawass. She claimed that Barner was the one who planned and orchestrated the murder, not Robinson.
“When you listen to all the credible, reliable evidence in this case, it’s only going to prove to you one thing: Hakeem Robinson is innocent. Find him not guilty,” she said.
After the McCormick trial concludes, Hakeem Robinson will face a separate murder trial for the 2019 shooting death of 16-year-old Adrian “Lil Bibby” Gainer Jr.
