{"id":187358,"date":"2026-03-11T15:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T15:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/187358\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T15:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T15:42:10","slug":"murder-trial-begins-for-pinellas-man-accused-in-random-tire-iron-attack-in-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/187358\/","title":{"rendered":"Murder trial begins for Pinellas man accused in random tire iron attack in 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jurors saw cellphone videos and read text messages in the trial of 21-year-old Savonne Morrison, accused of beating a man to death in Clearwater in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Testimony began Tuesday in the trial of a Pinellas County man accused of taking part in a<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtsp.com\/article\/news\/crime\/men-arrested-tire-iron-murder-crime-spree-clearwater-st-pete\/67-a6eb7f9b-c991-428e-a6f3-84c7e5ce5d07\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">\u00a0violent 2022 crime spree<\/a> that ended with a deadly tire iron attack in Clearwater.<\/p>\n<p>Savonne Morrison, 21, is charged in the death of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtsp.com\/article\/news\/crime\/men-arrested-tire-iron-murder-crime-spree-clearwater-st-pete\/67-a6eb7f9b-c991-428e-a6f3-84c7e5ce5d07\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">49-year-old Jeffrey Chapman.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Jurors heard that the violence began late on Oct. 20, 2022, when Morrison and another man,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtsp.com\/article\/news\/crime\/2-men-arrested-october-beating-murder-charges\/67-d1285d3b-829c-4387-aac1-05c28f32e768\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">\u00a0Jermaine Bennett<\/a>, allegedly used a tire iron to break into cars.<\/p>\n<p>Videos that prosecutors say were recovered from Morrison and Bennett&#8217;s cellphones were shown in court.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne would be smashing the window while the other filled and vice versa,\u201d a detective testified while describing the videos.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators say the crimes escalated from vehicle break-ins to random, violent attacks.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors say the two men first attacked 79-year-old John Budenas in St. Petersburg using the same tire iron seen in the videos. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtsp.com\/article\/news\/crime\/2-men-arrested-october-beating-murder-charges\/67-d1285d3b-829c-4387-aac1-05c28f32e768\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Budenas survived and spoke to 10 Tampa Bay News in 2023.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>They then traveled to Clearwater, where Chapman was beaten to death, according to investigators.<\/p>\n<p>During testimony, a detective testified that the suspects did not know the victims.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWas that a random act of violence?\u201d a prosecutor asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was random, sir,\u201d the detective replied.<\/p>\n<p>The defense argued that the videos do not actually show anyone being harmed.<\/p>\n<p>Jurors also reviewed text messages between Morrison and Bennett, reportedly sent the day after the killing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYo, you good?\u201d Bennett texted Morrison.<\/p>\n<p>Morrison responded, &#8216;Hell yea.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors said Morrison also sent a text that included \u201clol\u201d along with a link to a news story about the murder.<\/p>\n<p>In another message, Bennett allegedly responded: \u201cWe did it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors emphasized the wording during testimony.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt wasn\u2019t &#8216;I did it,&#8217; was it?\u201d the prosecutor asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo,\u201d the detective replied.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was &#8216;We did it,&#8217;\u201d the prosecutor said.<\/p>\n<p>Morrison\u2019s attorney argues his client did not know about any plan to hurt anyone and did not swing the tire iron himself.<\/p>\n<p>Bennett, the other man charged in the case, pleaded guilty in 2024 and is serving a sentence of life in prison without parole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jurors saw cellphone videos and read text messages in the trial of 21-year-old Savonne Morrison, accused of beating&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-187358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}