A Knoxville man sentenced to 31 years in prison for attempted murder when he was a teenager was granted a new trial based on newly unearthed cell phone evidence that shows he was on the other side of town when the shooting took place.
Ahmad Gatlin was convicted in 2023 after police and prosecutors said he was in a car when shots were fired into another car near Austin-East Magnet High School in 2021.
Gatlin, who was 16 at the time of the shooting, asserted his innocence from the beginning, saying it was impossible for him to be at the scene because he was miles away at his girlfriend’s apartment on Sutherland Avenue when it happened.
Knox County Criminal Court Judge Steven Sword ruled May 21 that Gatlin’s conviction was reversed and ordered a new trial, citing changes in technology that supported his account.
The reversal is based on a motion for a new trial filed by Gatlin’s attorneys. He was convicted of six charges, including the two counts of attempted murder in a shooting. He was sentenced in 2024 to 31 years in prison. After being presented with the new evidence during a May 12 hearing, the district attorney’s office agreed to a new trial.
In addition, defense attorneys argued in a filing earlier this month that Gatlin should receive a new trial because the Knox County prosecutor handling the case withheld other critical phone geolocation evidence that showed Gatlin wasn’t anywhere near the shooting.
They said prosecutors failed to provide the metadata from the social media app Snapchat. The data, Gatlin’s defense team argued, proved Gatlin was at his girlfriend’s apartment on the other side of town when shots were fired from a stolen car at two students in another car as they left the school in January 2021.
Prosecutors’ decision to agree to the reversal of the conviction removed the possibility of Sword ruling Assistant District Attorney TaKisha Fitzgerald committed a Brady violation, a serious offense that occurs when a prosecutor fails to provide a defendant or their attorney with evidence that could establish they did not commit the crime.
Fitzgerald admitted to withholding evidence during a hearing May 12, but downplayed it. She said if she had been aware of the error she would have provided the missing material. Still, she argued, Gatlin’s defense team had access to the cell phones and could have obtained phone metadata themselves. But they didn’t.
The evidence was recently made available to Gatlin’s defense team. Attorney Martha Dinwiddie filed a motion for a new trial May 9, assisted by the Wrongful Convictions Clinic at the University of Tennessee College of Law.
“We know wrongful convictions happen and juries can get it wrong, especially when they don’t have all the necessary evidence,” Stephen Ross Johnson, attorney and founder of the UT clinic, said in a statement. “For over 30 years, DNA evidence has revealed how the innocent can be wrongfully convicted. Digital evidence is today’s DNA. Thankfully, the full location evidence on Ahmad’s phones, not presented to the jury at trial, reveals critical location data supporting his innocence.”
New evidence is key
The final bell at Austin-East rang at 2 p.m. on Jan. 14, 2021. A 911 call came in at 2:13 p.m. to report the shooting.
Since recovering this data in April, Gatlin’s defense team and digital forensics expert Patrick Eller found Gatlin’s cell phone was connected to a Wi-Fi network (and being used) near Sutherland Avenue from 1:11 p.m. through 3:40 p.m. The Wi-Fi data comes from new technology that wasn’t available in 2021.
Since the trial, the defense team also received information from Uber that confirms Gatlin’s timeline of when and where he called for a ride, which does not match the narrative of the DA’s office and its expert witness who said Gatlin had to have been around Woodbine Avenue a few blocks from Austin-East before 3:08 p.m.
Defense argued DA office withheld evidence
Fitzgerald said Gatlin was placed at the scene by using data from his phone, arguing he ordered an Uber to Woodbine Avenue at 3:08 p.m. She argued he would have had to been in the vicinity before 3:08 p.m. to order the Uber.
During his first trial, Gatlin’s defense argued Snapchat photos and videos from his girlfriend’s phone timestamped 1:11 p.m., 1:54 p.m. and 1:56 p.m. were enough to clear his name, but Fitzgerald argued the data couldn’t be trusted, in part, because it could be possible to change the time and date on an iPhone.
Fitzgerald’s assertion was combined with a report from the owner of the stolen car used in the shooting that an iPhone was connected to the car’s entertainment system named “GoKrazy,” the same as a phone that belonged to Gatlin, though there was no evidence of it being connected to the car on the day of the shooting, only the day before.
But without the Snapchat metadata, to which prosecutors had access to before trial, Gatlin’s defense could not rebut the Uber data showing where Gatlin was (or was not, in this case). That data would have proved Gatlin’s alibi was correct: He was at Sutherland Flats, an apartment complex 7 miles away.
The metadata would have also shown Gatlin’s phone was connected to a “significant location” around 2 p.m. that day which corresponded with his girlfriend’s apartment. A significant location is a place where an iPhone regularly connects to synch data. That information allows apps to know a phone’s location to provide directions, for instance, and it shows Gatlin was not near Austin-East, his defense team argued.
“Unbeknownst to Mr. Gatlin at trial, all of the data that he needed to show his location during the timeframe of the shooting, to show that the timestamp on his Snapchat video was accurate and to show that he did not connect to the Honda Pilot infotainment system on Jan. 14, 2021, had been in the state’s possession …” Dinwiddie wrote.
The shooting took place during an unsettling stretch of shootings of Knoxville high school teenagers in 2021, all with ties to Austin-East. This shooting targeted Johnkelian “John John” Mathis and another student on Jan. 14, 2021. Both were uninjured. Mathis, however, was killed in a shooting in August 2021.
Gatlin and two others were charged with attempted murder but only Gatlin was convicted. Rashan Jordan was found not guilty, and a mistrial was ruled on Deondre Davis’ charges. Davis later agreed to a plea deal.
Both Jordan and Davis already were convicted of killing Stanley Freeman Jr., a 16-year-old Austin-East student, and were sentenced to life in prison for stalking and killing him.
Gatlin was convicted on two counts of attempted murder, two counts of employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, aggravated assault and theft. He was sentenced to 31 years in prison.
A new trial date has not been set.
The hearing on the motion for a new trial came on Sword’s last day in his current role. He was recently appointed to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals.
Tyler Whetstone is an investigative reporter focused on accountability journalism. Connect with Tyler by emailing him at tyler.whetstone@knoxnews.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @tyler_whetstone.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Cell phone evidence in a shooting near Austin-East leads to new trial