A distraught and furious father had to be dragged out of a Nashville courtroom after lunging at the two men on trial for killing his daughter. Caitlyn Kaufman was shot and killed on her way to work on December 3, 2020. The 26-year-old worked as a nurse and was driving in for her shift on Interstate 440 when she was murdered.
- Caitlyn’s father, Rick Kaufman, couldn’t contain his anger in the courtroom. He got out of his seat and went for Devaunte Hill and James Cowan, the two men facing life in prison for Caitlyn’s murder. The killing is said to have taken place after Hill became angry that Caitlyn cut them off while driving and began shooting at her car, the New York Post reports.
- Kaufman never made it to the men on trial. There was a partition between the defendants and the gallery, and Rick was intercepted before he ever made it close. Bailiffs removed him from the courtroom and he didn’t return, though his wife and Caitlyn’s mother, Diane Kaufman, was said to have cried throughout the hearing, per WSMV.
- Several witnesses spoke about Caitlyn Kaufman’s murder on the stand. Assistant Director Attorney Jan Normal called several witnesses to the stand this week. One of which was Sgt. Chris Dickerson, who was a lead investigator on the murder case. He told the courtroom what it was like arriving at the murder scene. “There was a parks officer, I believe he was on his way home. He drove by and he thought that it was a wreck. He thought a vehicle had rammed through the guardrail,” he said. “So, at first, he went by, and he was able to flip around, and he went up on the vehicle and he realized it had several bullet holes in the vehicle and then he realized there was an individual slumped over the steering wheel, so he positioned his vehicle in front of her and I believe he called additional units.”
- Police also revealed how they managed to find Caitlyn’s killers after the murder. They used someone who worked as a confidential informant for Metro Police to trade guns with Hill, leading to Hill’s arrest. If convicted, both Hill and Cowan could face life in prison.
