2022 Retropolis County DUI Killings

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On the early morning hours of July 20th, 2022, Gabriel Moore, (Born January 18th, 2004) purposefully drove his 2020 Bord F-150, into two cars whilst driving over a cliffside area, in Westville, Rohio, which ended up taking the lives of four men. Moore was later charged with four counts of first-degree murder, two counts of reckless endangerment, DUI, and acquitted conduct. He later pleaded not guilty and was sentenced to 120 years without parole.

Background Information

It is stated that Dominic West, (19, born September 27th, 2003) was dating a former ex-girlfriend of Gabriel Moore, Mackenzie Martin. Martin stated that while in the relationship with Moore, she felt uncomfortable, and stated that he was very demanding, and threatened multiple times to murder or attack her, which resulted in about two 911 calls. He was later arrested and bailed out in August 2021 following an incident where he keyed her car. Dominic started dating Martin in September 2021, and over time, Moore grew more and more aggressive seeing her in a new relationship. This led to Dominic making several Rostagram posts, where Gabriel would threaten Mackenzie, Dominic allegedly had been collecting it as, "evidence" in the case that he ever needed to get into legal trouble with Moore. Dominic made about four of these videos. Another instance is when in February 2022, during a prom event, Moore attempted to verbally attack him, after smoking marijuana in his car. However, Dominic, refused to fight. In the end, the principal had to intervene, and the police had to escort Moore away from the school grounds. In May 2022, the conflict grew even worse, after Moore posted a video to Rostagram, where he showed off his father's gun, with the video caption being, "Dominic finna be caught lacking" along with him making a series of threats and insults.

However, this never became true, but around this time, he had been planning on ways to murder Dominic, according to several entries on a private notebook. since he had recently learned Dominic's home address, and knew a route that he would take. Several recorded instances began circulating of Moore practicing the attack by speeding up very quickly at the start of the road. He had done it so many times that he had it completely memorized. In the days leading up to the quadruple DUI murder, he posted several videos where he would post himself lip-syncing to videos, with captions making fun of Dominic.

Incident Unfolds

At around 7:06 PM, on July 19th, 2022, a party that involved underage drinking, smoking, and doing illegal substances, started. At 6:29 PM, Dominic's white dodge charger, and a red mustang, were seen pulling up near the entrance of the house. Dominic's car, the white charger, had his girlfriend, as well as her friend, Bryce Watkins, and Jordan Marquis as passengers. In the red mustang, Davion Flanagan was on the driver seat, and two people were on the backseat. The two people in the backseat later told Westville Police Department their account, which ended up causing the arrest of Gabriel Moore. Near around the same time, Gabriel had shown up at the party, and walked inside. Gabriel would linger at the party for a few hours, mostly sitting in the kitchen, watching around. While Dominic and his friends, as well as his girlfriend, would be partying, drinking, eating, and having fun. At around 12:49 PM, the friend group, as well as Dominic's girlfriend, were seen leaving, and getting into the two cars, in the same spots as before. In the white charger, Dominic is the driver, Bryce Watkins in the shotgun seat, and Mackenzie in the back along with her friend. However, Jordan had to get into Davion's car, since they both lived on the same street. At around 12:57 PM, they were seen at a local gas-station. They are slowly being followed by Gabriel. Witness reports state that Gabriel walked outside his car, smoked a cigarette, and continued following them. At 1:19 AM, the two cars are seen driving up the cliff-like road, to their houses. Gabriel was seen on CCTV footage one last time, before the crash occurred.

The Crash

At 1:21 AM, the two cars stopped at a red stop sign, for about a minute. Dominic's girlfriend said that this was because he had lost the GPS signal, and was trying to reconnect it, with Davion's car, turned back to see which street they were on, which is when the crash occurred. Going 90 MPH Down the street, Gabriel Moore, charged his 2020 Bord F-150. At the point of contact, it immediately killed Jordan and Davion, after the front of the car was slammed into, afterwards, the car slid down, hitting the bottom of the cliff like area. Luckily, Dominic managed to pull out unharmed, but Moore just slammed into the front of his car, killing him and Bryce Watkins. The car went down the same cliff-like area, where the Red Mustang was. The two passengers were now in critical condition, as well as Mackenzie and her friend. Gabriel had planned an extra part of his plan, to stage Dominic as the perpetrator. He is seen on CCTV, purposefully slamming the back of his truck, into a tree, to make it look like he was the one who was hit. He also slammed the front part, making it look like he was slammed into a tree afterwards. Moore had actual bruises from the crash, and decided to use them to boost his story. He sat at dashboard, with his head slammed into it. A few minutes later, a person made a 911 call detailing a crashed truck, and possibly two cars crashed down by a cliff-like area.

Aftermath

A few minutes later, a 911 call was made stating that there were two cars located near the bottom of a cliff and stated that they had significant damage to them. A few minutes later at 1:33 AM, An ambulance, three cop cars, as well as a fire truck, had arrived. The four boys, Davion, Bryce, Jordan, and Dominic were pronounced dead on scene. There were roughly four others injured, including Dominic's girlfriend. 3 Days after, at a Retropolis Guardians game, a memorial was held for all 4 victims. A few days later, as new evidence came out, and CCTV Footage was reviewed, the Westville Police Department decided to arrest Gabriel Moore.

Court Arraignment

During the first arraignment, on August 9th, 2022, Moore is for the first time, seen in court. The story had grown very quickly, and there were tons of press coverage, but as well as the victims' families, and his own parents. He remained calm throughout the trial; even as his charges were presented, Moore kept a straight face. Joe Diddum, the lawyer for the Watkins family, used this as evidence later in his trial. It was not long before the town quickly caught wind of what had happened. A memorial was made for the 4 boys who lost their lives, the memorial contained photos of the boys, flowers, letters, cards, and more. A sign was later built in the same spot. Later, it was revealed, that in one of the cars he hit, it ended up hitting and paralyzing a 17-year-old named Josh Russo. Josh had showed up at the trial with his family, hooked up to a breathing machine, and was bound to a wheelchair. During the court arraignment, Moore ended up stating a witness account that was later proven wrong by CCTV, as well as pieces of the back of his truck being found hidden in bushes. He stated,

"I was just driving home from a party, and uh, the back of my truck was hit, and it sent my car into a tree with me in it, and I remember blacking out, and the firefighters pulling me out from the car, and being taken to the hospital, I remember I turned back for a second and I saw a white car hit the back of mine, which I think was Dominic's, but I was just glad I was okay." - Gabriel Moore

Second Court Arraignment

During the second arraignment on September 28th, 2022, The Flanagan Family's lawyer brought in a car crash expert, to detail how Moore's account of the incident was simply unrealistic. Later injuries revealed that Moore would have much serious injuries, especially the fact that there was not any shattered glass on any of the car windows, Moore would have experienced back related injuries, but his injuries were mostly to the chest and head. There wasn't much evidence to go off at this point, so Westville Police Department began to do a much more extensive search to find the evidence for the families of the grieving victims.

Evidence

As the story unfolded more and more, new evidence was released. Detailing videos from Moore's Rostagram page, detailing him threaten Dominic were shown during several evidence trials. In a search of the area, police and RBI Officials from Westville found pieces of the back of Moore's truck, buried by sticks and leaves in bushes. The mayor later revealed CCTV showing him verbally slamming into the two cars, he is seen casually following them, before speeding to 100mph and striking the cars. Because of this, Moore's lawyers arranged for an insanity plea, since there was too much evidence against him. They stated that he was just taking the same exact route home, when he had a sudden psychotic episode, and it was confirmed that Moore had a history of bad mental health and had psychotic episodes from the day Mackenzie broke up from him. Another piece of evidence shows two deleted Rostagram videos that he made, one where he said, "Bro got caught lacking" with a photo of Dominic's car crashed. Another video where he made a joke about it, where he zooms into the spot, where the cops were, when the crime scene was active, with caption being, "Bro wtf going on in Westville this time💀" These were later used as evidence against him, which only increased his years in prison.

Trial Preparation

On October 24th, 2022, as the lawyer teams for the four victims began to prepare their evidence for the trial, the families were visibly distraught, and a preparation trial took place in October. Gabriel and his lawyers were presented the charges once again, and the official court date was made. His trial would last from January 18th, 2023, - January 21st, 2023. Roughly, about a 3-day long trial, Moore's family lawyers later released evidence, and Moore would be set to plead not guilty on an insanity plea, Moore did end up pleading not guilty, and was held in a Juvenile Center in Rohio, until his trial could begin.

Hours Before Trial

On January 18th, 2023, at around 2:30 PM, Moore had arrived, along with his lawyers. He had arrived 20 minutes earlier than he was supposed to. However, everyone involved in the trial was already there. In the meantime, he would make his plea, and once again go over the charges that were presented to him. The trial took place in the city of Retropolis, at a federal court.

Victim Impact Statement #1 (Bryce Watkins, 19)

[Background Information: Bryce Watkins, [Born March 11th, 2003] was adopted by Daniel and Jamie Watkins in 2011 at age 8, alongside his two siblings, Chad, and Rebecca.] "My name is Jamie Watkins, and I am the adoptive mother of victim Bryce Watkins, and I am going to share with you today, at this court, what we lost on the early morning hours of July 20th, 2022. Davion was an extremely talented, and loving boy. He loved to play football, and soccer. But down at heart, his true passion, was that of the Culinary Arts. We had adopted Bryce and his siblings in Summer 2011, after we found out that we couldn't have children of our own. Instead of giving up, we seeked the next best plan, adopting a child. I'll never forget the day we adopted Bryce and his siblings. Bryce was just 8 years old, his sister, was 5, and a 4 year old sibling. I'm so glad that we adopted them, I just had the feeling that these kids would be the perfect decision. I'll never for get their faces when they first learned we adopted them. We would move into the suburb of Westville, Rohio. The place where I thought we were gonna live happy lives, up until that fateful day. He gave to us, what we never could give back. Unconditional love. Bryce was always the reliable friend who would go out even when it inconvenienced him the most, he never stopped loving us. I will never get over the fact that we never got to pay him back what he deserved. I miss going to Bryce's after school Football games, and watching him play as the star quarterback, and him hanging out with his friends, Jordan, Dom, and Davion, the best friends he could ever ask for. I'll miss watching him make us sweet and delicious treats during the holidays. He had plans to go to college after the summer, where he

wanted to get Culinary Degrees, at a college in Bloxburg Valley. He wanted to move back Rohio, where he wanted to start a family. However, he had that dream taken away from him, when the defendant slammed into the front of Dominic's car, killing not only him, but his friend, and wounding two other people, all because the defendant couldn't get over his girlfriend. I guarantee, that if the defendant were to have met Bryce, this might not have happened. I really did wish you got to meet him, before you slammed into Dominic's car, killing the both of them, without any second thought. Maybe, just maybe, in another universe, this didn't happen, and my sweet sweet boy, and his friends, would still be alive, and enjoying life. I'll love and miss you forever Bryce."

Indictment Count 1: Bryce Watkins

On Indictment count 1, Gabriel Moore was found guilty regarding the second-degree murder of Watkins. His family asked for it be considered first degree murder, since he had already planned to kill Dominic, who, was in the same car as Watkins. However, the court refused, since Bryce was not on the original hit-list, and was considered, "Cargo" according to Moore in a later statement. Moore was given 30 years in prison for his death.

Victim Impact Statement #2 (Davion Flanagan, 19)

[Background Information: Davion Flanagan, [Born May 11th, 2003] was born and raised by parents Marshall and Alia Flanagan, he had a twin named Trayvon.] "My name is Alia Flanagan, and I am the mother of Davion Flanagan. And I also came to this court today to share you the sadness we feel right now. Davion was a special soul, and I am so glad that we were able to make the only 19 years of his life that he lived, a special one. Davion loved to play basketball, and also football. He joined the football team with his friend and brother, Trayvon and Jordan. He also had a love for video games, and had a lot of fun playing them. His passion was to be a football and basketball player, he had sent out a admission letter to Ohio State University for a football scholarship, On July 18th, 2022. He had been accepted, but was never able to go, because of the defendant. Davion was more than just collateral damage, he was a person with his own emotions and feelings, dreams and passions, goals, plans, he had a life to live, but that was all taken away from him on that day, when the defendant slammed into his Red mustang, his beloved car. I don't think I'll ever forgot when I got the call from the Medical Examiner's office that told me that my son was dead. Since Davion had such a passion for loving us, we felt lost when the crash first occurred, and that Davion was dead. I just know Dominic, Davion, Jordan and Bryce are all together now, free form the grasp and hatred of the world, united together, in heaven. I will forever love you Davion."

Indictment Count 2: Davion Flanagan

On Indictment count 2, Gabriel Moore was found guilty in the second-degree murder of Flanagan. Similarly to the Watkins family, they asked for it to be considered first degree, but since that Flanagan was collateral damage, it was ruled as second-degree murder. For the murder of Davion, he was given another 30 years.

Victim Impact Statement #3 (Jordan Marquis, 18)

[Background Information: Jordan Marquis, (Born February 4th, 2004) was born in raised by parents Kendrick and Sabrina Marquis. He had two siblings, Asia and Trey.] "My name is Kendrick Marquis, and I am the father of victim Jordan Marquis. First off, I just wanna thank the Westville Police Department, as well as the FBI for getting the justice, for not only my family, by the three other victims, and their families. Jordan was an extremely talented kid when he was growing up. Jordan always strided to make other proud, and he did just that. Jordan was the star football wide receiver, I'll forever miss being able to see him play wide receiver, and now, I realized how much you can take love for granted. The love that gets us through the day, the week, the month, the years, you name it. Our lives forever changed on July 20th, 2022, when the defendant purposefully slammed his vehicle into his friend's car in attempt to kill in another person, I'll tell you this, my son was more than just goddamn collateral damage. He was a HUMAN, he had emotions, he had a life, he had so many things he wanted to do, but never got to experience them, because of him. Was it worth it, killing 4 innocent boys, just because of your vendetta against ONE of them. Because of that, Jordan won't be as privileged as me, I got to experience love from that boy, raising a family, going to all their graduations. But I am thankful that god gifted me and my wife this beautiful boy. I couldn't have asked for anything else. Jordan was like a once in a generation type of kid. He maintained good grades, was really good at sports, he was loving, and caring friend. He had it all. Up until that day, the day the defendant rammed into my son's friend's car, which killed the both of them. A day doesn't go by where I don't think about this. And what pains me the most, is that people are defending him. I get it is a lawyer's job to be handling for criminals, I get that. But it is COMPLETELY wrong to just say that this wasn't a planned crime. If you look on the CCTV, you can see that he planned this out. Not one, not two, but 3 times. This was a planned murder, he didn't care if he got anyone else hurt, he was so fixated on killing Dominic, that he completely forgot about other people. That's what pains me the most. I'll love you forever, Jordan."

Indictment Count 3: Jordan Marquis

On Indictment count 2, Gabriel Moore was found guilty in the second-degree murder of Marquis. His family attempted to appeal for first degree murder. However, Jordan was also considered, "Collateral Damage" while he was in fact murdered. It was not planned unlike Dominic's murder.

Victim Impact Statement #4 (Dominic West, 18)

[Background Information: Dominic West, (Born September 27th, 2003) was born in Retropolis Heights, to parents Franklin and Angela West. He had one sister, named Christine.] "My name is Mackenzie Martin, and I am the girlfriend of victim Dominic West. Like the three other victims families, I am here to share with you what we lost on the morning of July 20th, 2022. Dominic was the kindest, sweetest boyfriend ever, and I know from experience. Through the 18 years of his life he got to spend, he was nothing but a kind, charismatic, and sweet boyfriend, with the goal of going to barber college, where after he graduated, he wanted to start and franchise barber shops throughout Rohio. Unfortunately, he never got to do that. At school, he played as a member of Westville Highschool Baseball Team, and Football team with his friends. Dominic had so many dreams for the future, and Dominic hadn't even gotten a chance to even begin them, because of the defendant, or my ex boyfriend, Gabriel Moore. I can only remember small parts of that night, but I do remember some with Dominic. I remember right after the crash, Dominic had assured me it would be okay, even though, he himself, didn't make it. But I did make it. I'll miss cuddling with Dominic or making out with him, being able to go out with him, going shopping, I'd rather him be alive, but us broken up. Just knowing that he would be fine would be a better ending then now. I had just gotten out of a rough relationship when I met Dominic. He was understanding about where I came from, and always listened to me. I am not only sad for his lost, but also angered by the defendant. Why couldn't have he just moved past me? Was it worth it? To end four innocent lives? What was the point, I ask. It took just a little under a minute to take for 4 innocent boys, including my boyfriend and his friends. Each of them was a brother, a son, a grandson, a cousin, they were all loved by somebody, even if it just was one person. I know personally that Dominic was loved by many, he will be missed, alongside his friends, and I wanna thank Westville Community for not letting this murder go under the radar, but to punish the defendant in the worst way. When he is sentenced, I hope he gets the maximum sentence, I truly want him to think about what impact he has created not only for Dominic, and his family, but the others affected by this. I want you to think about each and every single boy, and take them into account, instead of siting them as "Collateral Damage" because I know for a fact Dominic was more than that. More than a life taken away in a few seconds, more than just someone's boyfriend, but as a beautiful person, who had dreams, goals, plans, and had a long life that they never got to live out of. But I just know, that justice will come and serve us, our town, Westville, Rohio. I'll never forget my lover, soulmate, boyfriend, my sweetheart, Dominic West.

Indictment Count #4 (Dominic West, 18)

On Indictment count 2, Gabriel Moore was found guilty in the first-degree murder of West. The family later stated regarding the sentencing, "We thank Westville, and the greater community of Retropolis for helping us find justice for our son Dominic." -Franklin West. Moore was given 30 years for his murder without parole.

Sentencing

Gabriel Moore pleaded not guilty to the followings charge(s): 1st Degree Murder (1x) 3rd Degree murder (3x) Reckless Endangerment (8x) DUI (1x) Acquitted Conduct (3x) Aggravated Vehicular Assault (2x). He was given a total of 120 years without parole. He was also permanently banned from obtaining a driver's license in the state of Rohio. He was sent to serve his sentence at Rohio State Prison. His vehicle would later be donated to a crime museum in Livetopia. The other vehicles involved were later put on display at a museum in Westville. His next public court appearance will be in November 2024 to take him into Solitary Confinement.