Syracuse, N.Y. – Jocelyn Dahzy could barely speak when she called 911 in the late hours of Jan. 7, 2022, to tell police that her boyfriend of five years had been shot in the chest and was dying.
Dahzy took the stand Friday during the murder trial of Vladimir Fernandez to recount the night she witnessed a masked man breaking into her home and heard multiple shots, one of which killed her boyfriend Tyus Ogletree.
Minutes before Dahzy called 911, she was in the bathroom of a home she shared with Ogletree, 27, and her three children at 212 Sunset Avenue. As she was in the bathroom “refreshing from a long day at work” she heard a loud knock.
She came out into the kitchen where Ogletree was standing and they heard another knock. A third knock -- even louder than the first two -- came shortly before the side door of their home was kicked.
Dahzy saw a man standing in the doorway wearing all black and holding what looked like a handgun, she told the jury Friday. She said the man was wearing a mask but she later described him as a lighter-skinned man with “twisties” in his hair. She could see only a small portion of his face through his balaclava.
Police would later find Fernandez outside the home with a gunshot wound to his leg dressed in all black. Investigators and prosecutors say that he matches the description given by Dahzy.
As the man was standing in the doorway and yelling, Dahzy ran into her nearby bedroom. Moments later she heard gunshots but could not see what happened.
Ogletree ran in from the kitchen and told her to call 911. Dahzy began crying on the witness stand as she told the jury that when he ran to her for help, he had already been shot in the chest.
Prosecutor Rob Moran played the emotional 911 call for the jury.
Dahzy is nearly inaudible for the first moments of the call as the dispatcher tries to get her to breathe and explain what happened. She screamed that someone had come into her house and her “husband is dying.”
She hastily gave the dispatcher the address and then began begging for help, repeating “please” and “hurry up” over and over again on the call.
She then turned her attention to Ogletree.
“Breathe with me baby,” Dahzy said on the 911 call.
As she speaks to Ogletree, her children can be heard screaming in the background of the call. After a few seconds, Dahzy returns to the phone and tells the dispatcher “he’s dead.”
Some jurors appeared to get emotional as the call was played. Dahzy and Ogletree’s family cried as they heard her frantic voice.
Related article: Mom recounts the night her son was killed by Syracuse teen: ‘Part of us died with our son’
After the call was played, one of Fernandez’s defense attorneys Ken Christopher began his cross-examination.
He pressed Dahzy on whether he knew Ogletree was a drug dealer and whether he kept guns in the house or on his person.
Dahzy said that she knew he was a drug dealer but did not know for sure whether he had guns.
She said that Ogletree had told her that he would keep guns to protect her and her children but she had never seen him with a gun.
Christopher brought up statements regarding guns that she had made to police that he felt were inconsistent with her testimony Friday. Dahzy stood her ground and said she didn’t have any direct knowledge of any guns.
Christopher pressed her on other details he felt she was inconsistent in her various interviews and testimonies to try to impeach her credibility with the jury.
The jury was led out of the courtroom briefly while the attorneys debated whether her statements were actually inconsistent. Moran argued that in the nearly two-hour interview with police Christopher was referencing Dahzy said many things most of which were consistent with what she testified to Friday.
In the end, Judge Melinda McGunnigle allowed both attorneys to read large portions of the transcript of her first interview with police.
Moran worked to show the jury that the inconsistencies Christopher pointed out were just small pieces of lengthy descriptions of what she saw that night.
Now the jury will decide whether Dahzy could accurately describe what and who she saw that night or if her memory has changed since the incident to more closely resemble a description of Fernandez as Christopher implied.
Fernandez faces first- and second-degree murder charges as well as a second-degree criminal possession of a weapon charge in connection with Ogletree’s death.
Fernandez was one of two people charged in Ogletree’s death but is the only one charged with first-degree murder. Fernandez’s codefendant, Junari Harold, has already pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
Fernandez is accused alone of breaking into the home with the intent to rob the home. Prosecutors say he then opened fire at Ogletree once inside, a crime Moran says constitutes first-degree murder.
Harold was charged with acting with Fernandez to kill Ogletree and unlawfully staying inside the home. However, he was not charged with first-degree murder.
Dahzy told the jury she only saw one person when the door was kicked in.
In his opening statement, Christopher points out that one of the second-degree murder charges states that either Fernadez or Harold fired the shot that killed Ogletree.
Christopher told the jury the prosecution has shown reasonable doubt in their own theories by charging Fernadez with acting alone and acting with Harold in two different counts.
Related Article: Attorney says man charged with murder based on assumption: ‘They don’t know what happened’
Dahzy’s testimony appears to be a key piece of the evidence Moran said will show Fernandez was the one who broke into the home and killed Ogletree. Moran told the jury in his opening statement that Ogletree shot back at Fernandez as he fled the house following a scuffle during the attempted robbery.
If convicted of first-degree murder Fernandez faces a potential life sentence without parole and a minimum sentence of 20 years to life in prison.
***
***
Staff writer Anne Hayes covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? You can reach her at ahayes@syracuse.com.