The Missing Girlfriend — GA v. Ryan Cooper: Opening Statement

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Where is LaCambria? Where is Cam? The evidence will show that Cam is no longer with us. The evidence will show that Cam is no longer with us because the defendant, Ryan Cooper, shot her. Because the defendant, Ryan Cooper, killed her. Because the defendant, Ryan Cooper, hid and concealed her body. We're here today because LaCambria Cooper is not. Ladies and gentlemen, on August 24, 2022, LaCambria Tumor's mother, Melissa Thornton, and you may hear her referred to as Melissa Caldwell, her mother reported her busy on August 24, 2022. She had not heard from Cam, as you'll hear they call LaCambria. Some people call her Cam. She had not heard from her in over a week. Her mother had not heard from her. Her mother, who keeps LaCambria's child, her son, had not heard from her. No calls. No visits. She had not made contact with any of the normal places that she would. [00:01:49] Speaker ?: Her mother checked her mouth. [00:01:50] Speaker 1: Her mother checked her mouth. Nothing. She had just vanished. She was worried about LaCambria. She was worried about her only child. You will hear, this was not LaCambria's nature to do this. You will hear that LaCambria was always on the phone, contacting people, social media. She would meet her mom. She would buy stuff for her baby. Give money to her mom. Visit her mom. She would visit outside agencies. She would go to places. She would see people. She would talk to people. She would message people. She was very active. Days later, LaCambria's mother contacted the police again, telling them, you need to contact the defendant, Brian Cooper. You need to contact him. Because you will hear that LaCambria's mom, the one that not only had LaCambria's child, but you will hear this is also the defendant's child, that LaCambria's mother, Melissa, tried to contact him herself. He wouldn't respond to her. He wouldn't respond to her. You will hear that. The evidence will show you that. So an investigation gets underway. Investigators themselves put out stuff on social media, missing person posts, things like that. They contact multiple people that she might have come in contact with or places that she might be. They contacted DFACS because the camera had a DFACS worker, Department of Deadly Children's Services. No, no contact. They looked in hospitals. They looked in jails. They looked at multiple other agencies for any potential places that she might have ended up at. And the evidence will show she was nowhere to be found. Investigators ended up doing multiple search warrants on various records, phone records, social media records, eBTS records, GPS records, or locations, records from all kinds of sources. They did the search warrant, the camera stuff, eventually the defendant stuff, and some other witnesses that you'll hear about. They got their phone records and stuff, too. You'll hear about all of this. This is the outline. The evidence will come from the stand and any evidence is entered into the trial of the case, any physical evidence and such. But they were able, investigators were able to track down the last day anyone saw LeCambria tumor. That was on August 15, 2022. On that day, she had been with the defendant. She had been with the defendant. She had an appointment with Aspire that day. And she went to that appointment. She went to her appointment at Aspire. She went there prior to lunch, prior to having a lunch area. She was supposed to go back. The lady said, you need to come back in the afternoon to finish up what we're doing here. The evidence will show that she did not return to her scheduled appointment. She did not return. Evidence will show that on August 15, 2022, after she left Aspire, sometime after lunch, that her and the defendant went to Terrell County, went to Dawson. They drove there in the defendant's white outing. They went there to visit the defendant's friend, Tevin Davis. Tevin Davis lived in Terrell County, and so did his girlfriend. They went there to visit them. And Tevin described, the evidence will show, he described the defendant, that's my brother. That's like my brother. So they went to Terrell County to see Tevin Davis. His girlfriend was there, Catherine called, and they hung out with him. So while they're there, the defendant and Tevin Davis leave, because they want to go get some liquor, so they go to the liquor store. They'd already been drinking. He'd already been drinking, I think, the evidence will be, but they went to get more. They went to get more alcohol. So when they leave, the evidence will show that LeCambria and Catherine Hall are there, and they had never met each other before. But you will hear, and you'll hear from the witness. They talk about some domestic violence situations, what's going on in their lives. You'll hear that from the witness. So they return. The defendant returns. Him and Tevin return. They come back. They're not there too long before the defendant gets mad because LeCambria is inside Tevin's house talking to his grandparents. Talking to his grandparents. And she's been in the house too long. She doesn't need to be asking for food. He's mad because she's in the house. Evidence will show that he goes in there, and other people are in there, and you'll hear from the witness, that he goes in there and tries to get her out, and she's refusing to go. She's even reaching out to another person. Like, hell, asking them to call her mother. Asking them to call her mother. But no, no. The evidence will show that's not what happened. That's not what happened. She gets in the car, the white Audi, with the defendant. She gets in the car with him. As he puts it in reverse and goes so fast that rocks are coming up. That's what the witness testimony will be. And as he is leaving doing that, LeCambria is screaming. And no one, no one, no one, no one ever saw her after that day. No one ever saw her after the defendant was flying out in reverse on that rock driveway with LeCambria screaming. No one ever saw her. No one ever heard from her after that day. And that's what the evidence will show. The evidence will show that the defendant was very familiar with firearms and known to keep firearms. People have seen him with firearms. The evidence will show. Evidence will show that he keeps firearms in his car. The evidence will show he himself the day before was sending messages to Cam. Make sure my gun's over there in that vehicle. Make sure my gun's there. That was the day before she goes missing. And in fact, he had a firearm on a prior occasion. Before this incident, he had a firearm. He had a firearm when an incident occurred. An assault on LeCambria tumor. He had a firearm. So this is my first time here. On August, the August 17th, 2021, there was a 911 call from the people at Infinity Salot. It's the Beauty Salot. The police had to go investigate an assault. They called 911 because LeCambria tumor is running up there to the salon trying to get in. Because I think the evidence will be that this is a salon that does stuff by, like appointments and stuff like that. She's beating on the door. They let her in and locked the door. They let her in and locked the door. The police come. EMS comes. They describe, the witnesses will describe what injuries she had and what happened, what they saw happen that day. And again, the defendant and LeCambria ran his white alley. But when she runs, he eventually leaves. He leaves. He leaves and goes and gets LeCambria's mother and brings her back. And when the police said, ask him. Ask the defendant. Read it for random rights. Ask the defendant about that gun. There's no gun. That gun gun. He said, there's no gun. No gun. When he went to get LeCambria's mother, he went in the house that day. LeCambria's mother said he had to put something up somewhere. LeCambria's mother, the evidence to show, was concerned because she has, she was concerned about firearms being in her house because she was suspicious thinking it might be a firearm. You'll hear her saying about that. And they asked him, what about, you know, they already told us, you hid a firearm when you left the salon. You hid a firearm. Then he said, oh, yeah, I did hide the firearm in the house after he fled the salon and came back. And they found the firearm. The evidence will show they found it. You'll see pictures of it. You'll see the firearm. They found it. He had hid it. The evidence will show you hid it under her couch. The evidence will show you hid it under her head. The evidence will show you hid it under her head. The evidence will show you hid it under her head. The evidence will show you hid it under her head. [00:13:29] Speaker ?: The evidence will show you hid it under her head. [00:13:30] Speaker 1: The evidence will show you hid it under her head. 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The evidence will show you hid it under her head. The evidence will show you hid it under her head. The evidence will show you hid it under her head. The evidence will show you hid it under her head. The evidence will show you hid it under her head. The evidence will show you hid it under her head. The evidence will show you hid it under her head. The evidence will show you hid it under her head. The evidence will show you hid it under her head. The evidence will show you hid it under her head. The evidence will show you hid it under her head. The evidence will show you hid it under her head. The evidence will show you hid it under her head. [00:15:34] Speaker ?: The evidence will show you hid it under her head. The evidence will show you hid it under her head. [00:15:36] Speaker 1: The defendant was a truck driver. He worked for Epps at the time. I believe it's how you pronounce it. But he was a truck driver. The defendant, so what does he tell them? You'll get to hear most of this. There's not all of it. It was reported and all that. But just some of the highlights, the evidence will show. The defendant, because they're wanting, asking me about this car. It's what out of it. I had to drive that car months. I had to drive that car months. I had that car months. That's what the evidence will show, that he's telling them. No, this is torn up. I had to drive it months. Yet you will hear, on the day she went missing, on the day McCandler went missing, August 15, 2022, that the defendant went to Foodie Line. That the defendant was driving the white Audi. How do we know? Because he used LeCambrian's EBT car. Because he's on the video, including his car in the parking lot. He also went, later that day, he went to Family Dollar. And we know he went to Tavons. You'll hear that. We know he was in the white Audi, this car that I described. He went there in that car that day. He said, what else did he say? That he had seen her a couple of weeks ago, and that she had gotten out of his truck. And loved and loved and poor deal. So she just, she got out of his truck. Yet, the investigators checked with loves. Chris County went over there, checked with loves. They could get over there quicker. The investigators in this case went and got video, checked with loves. They couldn't find, you'll hear the evidence will show, they couldn't find any evidence that she had been at loves. Or she was at loves. Defendant, I believe, said he was there an hour or two. The evidence will show he was there five or more hours. Five plus something hours. Told him he didn't, the evidence will show that he didn't see her again after he dropped her off at loves. But he talked to her. You will hear the evidence regarding her cell phone activity or lack thereof. Or lack thereof. Because her phone records, virtually, after 8 August 15, 2022, go silent. Other than people calling her. There's no answer. [00:18:37] Speaker ?: There's nothing on her phone. [00:18:38] Speaker 1: And a lot of folks that continue to do searches. And you'll hear about these. They did like ground searches in Terrell County, in Doherty County. They did all this. You know, they did the searches. They did the footwork on the ground looking. They did this. And you'll hear about that. And you will hear that the investigators finally, finally were able to find this white alley. And they seized it. And they did several searches on it. And you will hear that the investigators tell you that as law enforcement continued to work their case and get more information, they would go back and do another search on the car. And you will hear that Tevin Davis, who refers to the defendant as his brother, eventually disclosed that the defendant told him that he shot her, that he shot her in the car. Searches of the car continue. You will hear that initially what starts off, they start off with swabs. They do multiple searches until the car is pretty much or the interior is pretty much broken down. You'll hear about that though. That'll be in evidence. You'll hear that blood was found in the car. You'll hear that blood spatter was on the headliner. The headliner. This was a convertible. You'll hear that blood soaked the cushion of the passenger seat. You'll hear that blood dripped down under the console. Even going to drip it down through that. You will hear that. You will hear that the passenger window was shattered. And you will hear that Tevin Davis, the defendant, who thinks of the defendant as his brother, said that he told him that's how the window got shattered. You will hear that on August 15th at lunch when he went to Foodline, the window, you will see that on August 15th on Foodline, that window wasn't shattered on that white alley. And on that same day before they went to Tevin's house, you will see that window. The evidence will show that window is intact on the passenger side. And you will see other evidence consistent with this, or being shot in the car. You will see it. You'll see where the fragment of a projectile, bullet, whatever you want to call it, goes in. You'll see that on the outside of the door, there's a little protrusion where it goes in. You will see that forensic evidence that's consistent with her being shot in that car. You will hear that this isn't just any blood. It isn't just anybody's blood. You will hear that this is like embryo tumor's blood. And how do we know that? Because the GBI will testify that they did the DNA match with her mother. With her mother. And it was a match. It is, you will hear the evidence to show that it is, we can't hear too much blood. You will hear from experts that will tell you about the blood. That will tell you about the forensic evidence in the car and their opinions regarding that. You will hear that. They will lead you through their findings. We will be able to see some of the evidence. We have the evidence, some of the evidence specifically. See the, you know, that type of thing. Physical evidence. And at the end of this case, the judge will give you the law on the charges. And we'll talk more about that in closing. More details of the evidence. But at the end of the case, the state will ask you. And I think you'll find beyond a reasonable doubt that he is guilty. And I ask you to find the defendant guilty of shooting, killing, and disposing of La Cambria Tumor's body. And we believe the evidence will show that beyond a reasonable doubt. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Lawrence.