Eye-and-earwitness to 2023 Elyria Walmart parking lot fatal shooting testifies

ELYRIA — Richard Keeling was waiting for his girlfriend in the Elyria Walmart parking lot on Nov. 2, 2023 when he became an eye- and earwitness to a fatal shooting. Keeling testified Tuesday in Lorain County Common Pleas Court that he had just shut off his truck after 15 or 20 minutes of waiting when he heard a gunshot behind him. Immediately after that he saw two white men, later identified as victim Nick Tubbs, 21, and his brother Tyler Tubbs, in the truck mirrors and over his shoulder. Keeling testified that Nick Tubbs grabbed his left hip and quickly fell to the ground. A black sedan sped away from the scene, he testified. Keeling identified the cars at the scene that belonged to the Tubbs brothers. Nick Tubbs had driven his girlfriend's gray Kia Soul to the parking lot to sell marijuana to Roosevelt Benton and Michael Riggins and ended up shot, according to Elyria police, and invited his brother Tyler to join him. Tyler Tubbs rolled up in a white Dodge Nitro shortly before the shooting. He previously testified he saw Benton fatally shoot his brother. Benton, 20, of Oberlin, has pleaded not guilty to murder, felonious assault, improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle and carrying a concealed weapon, all felonies. Keeling testified that he heard a car door slam "aggressively" over the sound of his muffler-less truck before he heard the gunshot. He also testified he saw a Black man he couldn't identify "kinda" get out of the front passenger side of the sedan before sitting back down, but didn't see Nick Tubbs in Benton's car. After his brother was shot, Tyler Tubbs removed a baggie of marijuana from Nick Tubbs' pocket as he lay on the ground, put it in the back of his white Dodge Nitro, then moved the Kia Soul several spaces away from the crime scene before going back to tend to his wounded sibling, according to Keeling's testimony. Keeling did not see the Tubbs brothers with any weapons, and saw Tyler Tubbs using a phone to call 911, he testified. Tyler Tubbs previously testified he moved the marijuana because he wanted responding police officers and paramedics to focus on helping his brother, not the illegal drugs. Nick Tubbs died hours later at University Hospitals Main Campus in Cleveland. Keeling testified that shortly after the shooting, he drove to the other side of the parking lot and abandoned his shopping trip for a new winter coat. "I didn't know what else to do," he testified. Keeling reported what he saw and heard to Elyria police the following day because "someone had to say something," he testified. Deputy Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner Dr. Elizabeth Mooney testified that Nick Tubbs' cause of death was a gunshot wound to the pelvis. The manner of death was homicide. Nick Tubbs also had superficial abrasions to his right eye, left elbow, forearm and hand that were consistent with falling to the pavement, Mooney testified. The fatal shot likely was fired from greater than 3 feet away as there was no soot nor gunpowder stippling in the wound, she testified. The fatal bullet, which Mooney recovered from Nick Tubbs' body, was sent to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation for comparison with a Stoeger-brand 9mm handgun that Elyria police recovered from inside Benton's bedroom closet at his home on North Cedar Street in Oberlin. Ohio BCI analysts testified Tuesday that the bullet and a casing also recovered by Elyria police matched Benton's gun, and that Benton's DNA was found on the gun. The odds that the DNA belonged to anyone other than Benton were one in 1 trillion. While serving a search warrant at the Oberlin residence, Elyria police also seized his black 2017 Honda Accord. Detective Robert Whiting testified that he was tasked with processing the car for evidence. A license plate reader camera caught Benton's car speeding away from the scene of the shooting, and he was arrested early the morning after. Elyria police Detective Jeb Larson testified Tuesday how investigators narrowed their search for the passenger Riggins, how his Elyria home was searched and how Riggins was interviewed two weeks after the shooting. Riggins at first lied and said he had been at work on Nov. 2, 2023, then admitted he had been at Walmart when the shooting took place, Larson testified. Riggins had a "very poor" recall of the events at Walmart, Larson testified. Riggins refused to testify in court and invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Testimony resumes today in Judge Melissa Kobasher's courtroom. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com.