Not Guilty: Red Roof Inn shooter shot in self defense, jury says

FORT WAYNE, Ind. --Tommy Gray saw a friend of his from the Louisville crew attacked with a crowbar and a hammer, his face “ripped open” to his ear.

Things had turned ugly in the southeast parking lot of the Red Roof Inn where two crews - one from Louisville and the other, Chicago - were on a job for Servpro, a national construction and restoration operation.

Tommy Gray, not guilty and counting his blessings

During the ensuing melée on Dec. 9, 2023, Gray, now 24, shot and killed Keelin Woods, 26. He stood trial this week in Allen Superior Court for murder, attempted murder and using a firearm in the commission of a crime.

The jury, after about three hours of deliberation, found him not guilty. They agreed he acted in self defense. 

On that cold and rainy day, around 2:45 p.m., the Chicago crew got aggressive, not only attacking Gray’s friend, but otherwise provoking a brawl that included fists, crowbars, hammers, rocks, and two guns that never became part of the case, according to court testimony.

During the chaos, Gray went to his rented 2022 white Chevrolet Malibu and got out his gun in anticipation of more trouble.

“Keelin ran up on me. People were coming at me swinging. At that point, I pulled out my gun,” Gray recounted on the stand.

'They beat that boy bad,' one Fort Wayne witness said. She told The Probable Cause she stayed there for a couple of days.

The state led by deputy prosecutor Tasha Lee and Rebecca Grove said Gray fired his gun at Woods and shot him twice in the back.

Lee and her team showed video of Gray raising his arm to shoot, Woods down on the ground and Gray walking back to his car with his gun. 

Gray’s defense team, Allen County chief public defender William Lebrato and David Felts, argued that he fired his 9mm handgun in self defense. On the stand, Gray said Woods turned as he shot him.

There was no dispute from either side that sometime during the fracas, Gray was severely beaten with rocks, crowbars, hammers and even his own gun. Woods’ cousin, James Lawrence, disarmed Gray and bashed him with it. 

Allen County Chief Public Defender William Lebrato (left) and defense attorney David Felts. They represented Tommy Gray.

“I went to pick up my keys on the ground,” Gray testified. He remembered being hit with a rock and people ripping off his clothes. Then he felt more objects hit him on the head.

Lebrato, in his closing arguments made much of the fact that Lawrence and Woods’ brother, Devon Johnson, refused to testify. He also criticized the prosecution for not interviewing workers from Louisville, only Chicago.

One of the Chicago crew who did testify didn’t contact the Allen County prosecutor until this summer, Lebrato said, and called it “laughable.”

His testimony on the stand corroborated the state’s arguments. He was released from the court after testifying Friday and sat down with Woods’ family.

Woods had been doing well at the Servpro site and had been moved up to supervisor status, Lee said.

Gray, who, in hindsight, wisely took the stand, said he wanted to make some money during the Christmas break from college and signed up for the job, renting a vehicle to get to the job because his own car was in the shop. Gray, who was 21 at the time of the shooting, said he was a business and finance major.

Gray said he had to return to the shooting scene, much of it behind a Servpro truck that hid some of the action, to retrieve his keys.

That’s when he was severely beaten. 

Lee questioned whether the claim was real, saying he didn’t look injured when he walked back to his car and left the scene.

But Thursday, a U. S. Marshall testified that she took photos of Gray when he was picked up in Louisville because he had obvious injuries. 

Somehow or other, in the discourse of the trial, it came up that the tools used as weapons were never found. Why would that be surprising?

Tommy Gray will be on his way back to Louisville as soon as the paperwork is done. Because he was picked up so quickly,, he never got a chance to find out if he had any brain injury.

“I didn’t know anything about Fort Wayne,” Gray said during his testimony. “It was my first time there.”