Gregory Cunningham Jr. was just 12 years old when he watched his cousin Michael Smith get murdered in a drug deal gone bad in Lauderdale Lakes in 2011.
Jaquin Ham pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in Smith’s death and was sentenced to six years in prison.
When Ham was released, prosecutors say Cunningham got revenge and shot Ham to death in his car on September 20, 2020.
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Surveillance cameras captured footage of Ham’s murder. Multiple gunshots ring out and then a Mercedes speeds away from the scene in Fort Lauderdale.
Cunningham was in a Broward courtroom Thursday as his murder trial was underway.
Prosecutors presented records from Cunningham’s cell phone that police said place him at the crime scene at the time of the killing. A co-defendant, Brian Dean, is also charged in the murder.
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Prosecutors said notes pulled from Cunningham’s phone read like a confession.
"Shots hit him in his temple, watch his head explode,” said Fort Lauderdale Police Detective Jason Chalut, reading the note. Chalut is one of the investigators on the case.
Prosecutors also believe the murder was Cunningham taking revenge on Ham for killing his cousin, Michael Smith. They say another note written on his phone proves it.
“Damn Mike, sorry I couldn’t save you. I still have nightmares of you, I’ve been dying in my sleep, these dreams and pain are so real. But he’s going to pay for what he did," the note reads.
Prosecutors said Cunningham skipped town after the murder and was laying low in Georgia. He was arrested four months after the killing.
Now Cunningham faces life in prison if he’s found guilty of killing the man who killed his cousin.
The trial is expected to wrap up next week.
