JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The man who was driving the SUV when Prince Holland was fatally shot in an ambush drive-by in December 2022 testified Friday that he saw the 13-year-old get hit.
He said he had been talking with the teen as he stopped at the intersection of Moncrief and New Kings roads.
“My hand was on the steering wheel, and I got shot through my arm and (Prince) got hit,” said the man, who had coached Holland and the other kids in his SUV during football tryouts minutes before the deadly shooting.
The coach became emotional and had to pause during his testimony in the murder trial of two Jacksonville men charged with killing Holland.
NOTE: Because of the sensitive nature of the evidence and some of the witnesses’ identities, News4JAX will only show limited images from inside the courtroom. Some of the details below are graphic. Discretion is advised.
Kentrevious Garard, 27, and Marcel Johnson, 25, are both facing first-degree murder charges in connection with the teen’s death. They have separate juries in their combined trial.
According to investigators, Johnson drove a blue Kia Rio with Garard inside, waiting for the red SUV that the coach was driving. They said Garard fired shots at the SUV when it stopped at the traffic light, killing Holland and wounding others, including the coach and an 11-year-old child.
The coach testified Friday that he was shot 10 times in the attack, but didn’t realize that until he got to the hospital later.
“I only thought my arm got hit with Prince at the same time,” the coach said.
He believes a bullet went through his arm and then struck the teenager.
The coach was also wounded in his hip and stomach and lost his left index finger. He spent a year and eight months in the hospital.
During the coach’s testimony, the prosecutor also asked him about his history with Johnson, and he acknowledged the two had previously gotten into a fight at a gas station.
‘Very hard to breathe’
The 11-year-old who survived the attack is now a teenager and shared vivid testimony Thursday about the chaotic night Holland was killed.
The coach and the kids were leaving football tryouts when they stopped at the intersection, he recalled.
“About like three seconds later, (it) sounded like a whole bunch of firecrackers,” he said. “I was still in shock, and then once I looked up, it was, like the windshield was just blurry a little bit.”
He said everyone got out of the car once the shooting stopped.
“We tried to put the coach on the sidewalk, and then we kind of like ran back up from the car a little bit, and then (someone) called my mom,” he said.
He was wounded in the upper back and spent seven days in the hospital after the shooting. He explained what it felt like to be shot.
“I was just hot, and I was like spitting, and it was like a thick blood coming. After that, it was just like, very hard breathing, very hard to breathe,” he said.
In addition to the witness testimony on Thursday, gruesome evidence photos had emotional loved ones of Holland tearing up.
Chantel Brown, Holland’s mother, previously told News4JAX that the past few years have been horrible and being back for the trial has brought a flood of emotions as she’s forced to relive that night all over again.
She said she’s hoping this process will bring justice.
‘Boom, boom, boom’
Witnesses describing the chaos at the intersection that night said they heard loud pops that they thought were fireworks at first, and at least one witness recounted seeing a muzzle flash coming from a vehicle.
“I just heard and felt: boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,” one witness said, explaining how she slipped down inside her car when she heard the explosive sounds. “I proceeded slowly to get back up. And then I noticed that the light had changed. I was a little hesitant. I was just kind of frozen and scared to move. But I decided to proceed, to go forward.”
She said when she did, a small blue car passed by her.
“The car came, and it seemed like to me out of nowhere, and it almost hit me,” she said.
Another witness said they saw muzzle flashes from a vehicle, although no one could identify the shooter or the car the shots were coming from.
Both defense attorneys emphasized that the witnesses could not identify the make or model of the suspect vehicle, nor how many people were inside.
Testimonies will continue on Friday morning at 9 a.m.
Gang connection?
One key part of pre-trial discussions involved whether or not rap videos could be used as evidence against the men.
Originally, Judge Jeb Branham agreed to allow the prosecutors to use as much video evidence as they needed to show a connection between the two defendants.
Branham also said, “The State may further show any portions of the videos that discuss 320 or proposed violent actions towards ‘ops,’ i.e. rival groups or gangs.”
But Garard’s attorneys continued to push back against the relevance of the videos, saying they are not disputing that the two men know each other and arguing that the videos could be prejudicial to the jury.
In a 2023 news conference, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said that Holland’s shooting was linked to “two rival street groups.”
Garard’s attorneys argue that he is not a documented gang member, the state hasn’t offered any evidence that he is connected to the two groups in question and that the videos have no bearing on the facts of the case.
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Last year, the State Attorney’s Office released evidence, including footage and phone calls related to the investigation. A nearly four-hour-long interrogation of Johnson was also made public.
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During the interrogation, Johnson reportedly told detectives about the tension between him and Garard as they followed the red SUV carrying Holland from football tryouts.
According to Johnson, when they reached an intersection, Garard allegedly instructed him to “let the shots off.”
The police reported that more than 20 bullets were fired during the incident. Johnson has claimed that Garard threatened him to ensure his silence about the events that transpired.