Red Roof Inn homicide trial wraps up Friday; Louisville man accused

FORT WAYNE, Ind. ---Thursday at the murder trial for Tommy Gray, a video showed the defendant with his arm extended close to a Servpro POD.

That’s the closest the Fort Wayne police got to a video showing the shooting death of 26-year-old, Keelin Woods, in the parking lot of the Red Roof Inn on Dec. 9, 2023.

It’s bad, but that hasn’t stopped Gray’s defense team - David Felts and Allen County Chief Public defender William Lebrato-  from picking apart the prosecution’s case.

Weeds from an adjacent parking lot adorn PODS that have reportedly been there since the Dec. 2023 homicide of Keelin Woods.

They’re out to convince the jury that someone other than Gray, now 24, charged with murder, attempted murder and using a firearm in the commission of a crime, could have shot Woods.

Besides Gray’s firearm, a 9mm gun taken off him by the victim’s cousin after Gray allegedly shot Woods, there were two other firearms that Lebrato pointed out were not forensically tested.

And out of the 15 to 20 Servpro workers caught on video in a brawl on the southeast parking lot of the Red Roof Inn where they were working, only two people, one the victim’s brother and the other, his cousin, were willing to cooperate with the swarm of cops that showed up to investigate. Neither one agreed to come to Fort Wayne and testify.

Tommy Gray

So what was it all about? Two crews - one from Louisville and the other from Chicago - were staying at the Wyndham Garden hotel nearby and doing a job at the Red Roof Inn. 

Gray was with the Louisville crew; Woods was with Chicago.

Two PODs involved in the construction still sit in the parking lot, a kind of funereal monument. That’s where Woods went down, according to court testimony and a probable cause affidavit written by detective Geraud Bartels.

Two weeks before Christmas, the weather cold and rainy, all it took was a supervisor from Chicago accusing the Louisville crew of slacking and a brawl broke out, fists flying and apparently some tools.

An assistant supervisor, Lacrishia Hale who testified Wednesday,  called the scene “shocking” and “chaotic,” and cleared out. She said she saw crowbars and then heard gunshots, which is kind of the other way around from the probable cause.

There it says Gray shot Woods and then the crowd attacked him with rocks and crowbars. Woods’ cousin bashed Gray with his own gun and then tried to shoot him, only the gun wouldn’t work.

The Red Roof Inn on West Coliseum Boulevard sits next to Brandi's Lounge, a strip club.

Testimony from FWPD crime scene investigator Christine Miller explained that the slide can lock if it’s bumped or otherwise improperly used.

Deputy Prosecutors Tasha Lee and Rebecca Grove painstakingly laid out every component of the investigation - from Fort Wayne officers investigating the scene, to DNA, to fingerprints, drone photos of the scene and the actual photo array shown to Hale. 

Five similar-looking men with nothing to do with this case are now memorialized in the evidence.

The other photo, number 3, was identified as Gray by Hale. She didn’t say she saw him shoot, but identified him as Tommy Gray who was the suspect in the homicide.

FWPD detective Brian Williams testified on a projectile that pierced the POD and was removed. Williams could not specifically testify, however, that the projectile was 9mm.

As the long day worn on, Lebrato and Lee got to sparring a bit. Around 3:30 p.m. Lebrato wanted it to stop.

“Direct. Cross. Redirect. Cross. It’s over,” he said to Magistrate John Bohdan, presiding over the trial.

That was just before Lee divulged that the Servpro workers were 1099 employees. 1099 employees are independent contractors and, at this point in time, were probably hoping to take a few bucks back to their homes in time for Christmas. No mention was made of who picked up the bill for their lodgings.

[According to ZipRecruiter, the average hourly pay for a Servpro Technician in the United States is $19.46 an hour, but the pay can be “as low as $10.58. Indiana ranks number 40 out of 50 states nationwide for Servpro Technician salaries.”]

Gray was seen on video leaving directly after the shooting, jumping into his rented white Chevy Malibu and turning on to West Coliseum Boulevard. The car was tracked to I-69 and then I-65 toward Louisville.

A U.S. Marshall took the stand to say she apprehended him and took photos of him - remember he was beaten with rocks, crowbars and his own gun - and the Malibu. 

The Malibu had been damaged when Gray backed out of the parking lot to take off and hit a black pick up truck.

The truck belonged to a Louisville man who won’t talk.

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