Wichita County prosecutor: Love was 'criminal mastermind' in drug ring, ordered Thrasher shot
A prosecutor and a defense attorney presented vastly different versions of Justin Michael Love to a jury Wednesday.
Love, 33, is on trial for the second time in connection with the 2015 murder of 21-year-old Domanic Thrasher, a former Rider High School football star.
According to the prosecutor, Love ran a drug ring hauling pot from Colorado to Texas to sell, ordered Thrasher shot during a drug deal gone wrong and then engineered an elaborate murder coverup.
"The defendant was the criminal mastermind behind the operation," Wichita County Assistant District Attorney Kyle Lessor told a jury of nine women and three men in 30th District Court Wednesday morning.
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A witness will testify that Love said, "Shoot him, Blayne!" — commanding his drug business partner to pull the trigger, Lessor said.
Police still have not recovered the murder weapon, which they believe was sealed into a can of paint and tossed into a lake. A key cell phone and clothing were also never found.
Love's business partner, who was the triggerman, got his long hair cut short about an hour after the killing. And a woman present when Thrasher was shot later dyed her cotton-candy pink hair to a red shade.
Whitney Mercedes O'Brien, who functioned as a go-between in the fatal drug deal, is expected to take the stand to give eyewitness testimony of the murder and its aftermath.
"You'll know that she's a truthteller," Lessor told jurors.
When O'Brien gave statements to the police, she had no deal with prosecutors or offer of immunity — only the incentive they would consider her truthful cooperation, Lessor said.
O'Brien, 26, was sentenced to 15 years for manslaughter in a Jan. 18, 2019, plea bargain for Thrasher's killing. She was paroled Sept. 3, 2020.
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Wichita Falls defense attorney Mark Barber told jurors Love was no criminal mastermind.
"Justin was driving a 12-year-old truck and living in Sunnyside," Barber told the jury.
Instead, Love fell victim to "pit bull" and triggerman Blayne William Brooks' independently made decision to fire a gun over and over at Thrasher, Barber told jurors.
Thrasher was shot just after noon June 2, 2015, at the intersection of Yuma Trail and Gunnison Street in north Wichita Falls.
Brooks, 27, is serving 60 years in prison for shooting Thrasher over a drug buy for two ounces of pot.
Barber told jurors that it's undisputed Brooks shot Thrasher. But they will have to decide if Love is criminally responsible for the murder — and he's not, the defense attorney said.
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"Mere presence at the scene of a crime does not make one guilty," Barber said. "It wasn't his conscious desire. He's not intending for a murder to happen."
Brooks' choice to kill Thrasher had nothing to do with Love, Barber said.
As for O'Brien, she didn't come forward to the cops with information, Barber said. She was arrested and only cooperated after she got a lawyer.
Barber said O'Brien, who then worked as a stripper, is smart, pretty and well spoken.
"But you can't judge this book by its cover," he said.
Barber was frank about his client.
"With regard to Justin, you won't like him. I won't lie to you. He can be abrasive at times. He can be rude," Barber said. "But we don't convict people because we don't like them."
Love faces up to life in prison if convicted of engaging in organized criminal activity-murder.
In his first murder trial, a jury found him guilty Dec. 13, 2018, after three weeks of testimony. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison Dec. 17, 2018.
In a March 26, 2020, ruling, a Fort Worth appeals court overturned Love's conviction and ordered the 30th District Court to give him a new trial.
More: Judge orders murder defendant Justin Love taken immediately into custody, no bail
Trish Choate, enterprise watchdog reporter for the Times Record News, covers education, courts, breaking news, politics and more. Contact Trish with news tips at [email protected]. Her Twitter handle is @Trishapedia.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Wichita County prosecution, defense opening statements in Love trial
