A man in a yellow shirt runs into the street toward the blue sedan. The car speeds toward a three-way intersection. He holds a handgun up and aims it at the vehicle.
In a park across the street, a young woman is walking.
The man fires.
The young woman falls. The car turns right. She doesn’t move.
The man runs out of the street.
Jillian Ludwig, an 18-year-old freshman student studying music business at Belmont University, was killed Nov. 7, 2023, while walking in Memorial Gardens Park in the Edgehill neighborhood. Police say Shaquille Taylor, 30, fired the bullet that killed her.
Belmont University student Livia Mechalovich wears a T-shirt honoring fellow student Jillian Ludwig during an Edgehill community memorial blessing and tree dedication at William Edmondson Homesite Park & Gardens on Saturday, April 13, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. Ludwig was jogging in the park when she was shot and killed by a stray bullet last November.
Her friends and family say she was a music lover, a sweet friend and an old soul.
Family members and other loved ones sniffled as prosecutors played video of the shooting during a court hearing June 17. The hearing is being held to determine if Taylor, diagnosed as intellectually disabled, is competent to stand trial. Taylor had been released from jail after being found incompetent to stand trial months before Ludwig’s death in a case of assault with a deadly weapon.
Judge Steve Dozier said he’ll take his decision under advisement and will “hopefully make a decision soon.”
That was the first time Ludwig’s parents saw the surveillance footage of the moments that led to their daughter’s death. Though, they admitted, they shielded their eye when the gunshot came.
“We believe Taylor is unquestionably competent to stand trial,” Jillian’s mother, Jessica Ludwig, said after the hearing through measured breaths with choked words. “In the videos we watched today, he spoke clearly and showed that he understands and rationalizes his decisions. … He had a better understanding of the legal system than most people of much higher intelligence.”
Nashville Assistant District Attorney Jan Norman said the video and Taylor’s interview with police a day after the shooting are proof he is competent. They argue he knew to cover up evidence of the crime and began trying to formulate a self-defense claim.
In the interview, played in court June 17, Taylor admits to giving the gun away. He also tells Det. Jeffery Jobe he was returning fire at the person in the blue sedan, who he said was shooting at him through the car’s back window. No gunshots can be seen coming from the sedan.
Taylor says in the interview that he did not know Ludwig was hit and killed by the bullet he fired. Jobe tells Taylor and asks whether he would like to say anything to her family. Crying, Taylor says, “It was an accident. I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I didn’t know. I didn’t know.”
On June 16, psychologists called by the defense repeatedly testified about Taylor’s poor cognitive functioning. An expert has never before testified in Taylor’s previous criminal cases that he is competent to stand trial. Scores from Taylor’s IQ tests were presented, none of which were above 71 — which came from a nonverbal test — and which were as low as 56.
A score of 56 puts him in the lowest 1% of all IQ test takers, Vanderbilt University Medical Center clinical psychiatry professor Kimberly Brown testified.
Another expert found he lacked the ability to synthesize information to make legal decisions.
On June 17, Tucker Johnson, a psychologist retained by the prosecution in this case, scored his IQ a 70, although she said it may be as high as 75.
Prosecution’s expert says Taylor engaged in reasoning
The district attorney’s office called Thomas Edward Schacht, now self-employed as a clinical and forensic psychologist, previously a professor at East Tennessee State University. He said he found Taylor used foresight and strategic thinking.
He did not give his opinion about Taylor’s competency, but he did say people at Taylor’s intelligence level often have their competency to stand trial restored through training.
In a video-recorded interview with Schacht, Taylor says Ludwig was “caught in the crossfire.” When asked, Taylor explains that first-degree murder means that he “meant to kill her.” He says the shooting was an “accident.
He claims he was returning fire at the person in the blue sedan and asked to see the video of the shooting to see if that was visible, because that would be helpful to his defense. He also asks what type of bullet Ludwig was struck with and explains that it would be helpful information in his case to know if it was one of the bullets he had.
Schacht said Taylor’s behavior shows an “interest in the evidence,” and he also said Taylor was “engaging in reasoning.”
In a video of Schacht watching surveillance video of the shooting with Taylor, Schacht says to Taylor, “This was almost a year ago, and you still remember it pretty good.”
Schacht talked about a carjacking case he discussed with Taylor. In that case, Taylor gave the keys to a stolen truck to someone else and tried to frame them when he learned police were on his trail, Schacht said.
Schacht called this “an example of exercising foresight and strategic thinking of how to solve a problem.”
Motive shows competency
Norman called Detective William Gibbs to testify as the last witness for the hearing. Gibbs investigates gang-related shootings.
Gibbs questioned Taylor shortly after Ludwig was killed, asking him if the shooting was in retaliation for a July 2023 shooting.
Taylor previously said in a police interview that he thought shots were fired from the car before he fired his shot. In his interview with Gibbs, which was played to the court, Taylor said he thought the car was retaliating for a gang issue he wasn’t part of, but that they started shooting in his direction so he returned fire.
The beef that started it all was a shooting in July 2023, months before Ludwig was killed, according to testimony.
Norman asked the detective to walk through video footage from that shooting that showed Taylor as a participant.
Norman argued that Taylor’s involvement in the July shooting spoke to motive for the shooting that killed Ludwig. And that, Norman said, showed that he could plot, retaliate and therefore was competent.
Dozier, however, was quick to ask why Taylor wasn’t charged in the July 2023 shooting. Gibbs, who was not the lead detective on that case, said he didn’t know when Taylor was identified as a participant. Norman said they were presented the case at the same time as the criminal homicide charges for Ludwig’s death.
“Seems like a lot of people dropped the ball,” Dozier said in response.
“I agree with you,” Norman answered.
Have questions about the justice system? Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him with questions, tips or story ideas at emealins@tennessean.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Prosecutors push to prove suspect competent in Jillian Ludwig shooting