Port Arthur trial: prosecutor shows bodycam, knife and recorded statement as evidence in killing of Chadwick Lanes

PORT ARTHUR, Texas — Prosecutors on March 11, 2022, told jurors at the 252nd District Court that evidence including police body‑worn camera video, scene photographs and a knife recovered from a kitchen drying rack link Ahmad Jamal Akron to the fatal stabbing of Chadwick Jermaine Lanes, and they played a recorded interview in which, according to investigators, Akron acknowledged the attack.

In opening statements, the prosecutor said the defendant told investigators, “I was upset. I shouldn’t have done what I did. It shouldn’t have gone that far,” and said the state would present recorded interviews and bodycam footage to support its case. The defense asked jurors to withhold judgment until all evidence is heard; Akron entered a plea of not guilty when arraigned before the jury.

The state introduced multiple items into evidence. Port Arthur police officer Christian Villasana testified that he responded to a dispatch to 827 Stilwell Boulevard and found the victim on the front lawn with an apparent stab wound to the neck. Villasana identified a knife on a drying rack near a kitchen sink and confirmed the item later packaged by evidence technicians. The prosecutor published body‑worn camera footage from Villasana and other officers and showed photographs that the witness described as depicting blood on the knife, stains on the driveway and a large laceration under the victim’s right jaw.

Detective Terry Cader testified that he interviewed the defendant at the police station after Akron was taken into custody at the house. Cader said Akron waived his Miranda rights and, in the recorded interview offered to the jury, admitted he chased and stabbed the victim after an argument over money. Cader told the court he concluded, based on the investigation and autopsy reports, that the victim had been stabbed multiple times and died from those wounds.

Officers and a crime‑scene technician also testified to routine chain‑of‑custody steps: the knife and photographs were marked and sealed in evidence packaging, a USB containing officers’ bodycam footage was initialed, and packaged items were later opened at the district attorney’s office for review in court. Several still photographs of the scene (state’s exhibits 2–19) and a packaged knife and its contents (state’s exhibit 20 and 20a) were admitted without objection. The state also admitted recorded digital files of body cameras and the recorded custodial interview (states 1, 21–23; admissions noted on the record).

Prosecutors previewed testimony they said would include a pathologist’s findings that the victim suffered multiple stab wounds, and they showed jurors portions of officers’ bodycam video in which officers describe the scene, point to the knife on the drying rack and discuss observations that Akron had tried to rinse the blade (investigators said bleach was used). Witnesses described a trail of blood from a nearby roadway into the yard where the victim collapsed and said the item packaged as evidence bore a case number and tamper‑resistant tape when it was produced at the district attorney’s office.

Defense questioning emphasized that officers did not witness the altercation, that scene observations were made after the fact, and that some witnesses at the scene gave differing or limited accounts. Defense counsel also pointed to the relatively small amount of blood on the white shirt and shoes the defendant was wearing as shown in photographs and asked whether that was consistent with a prolonged struggle.

No verdict was reached; court recessed after the day’s testimony. The judge granted the state’s motion to place witnesses under the rule (the usual exclusion of witnesses from the courtroom except as allowed), and several witnesses were sworn and placed under that rule for the day. The trial will continue with further witnesses and evidence presented to the jury at later proceedings.

The case is recorded as Cause No. 2239528. No sentencing or final disposition occurred during the proceedings on March 11, 2022.