National Football League

Prosecution continues in case of player shooting

Published Oct. 30, 2009 8:07 p.m. ET

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Cell phone calls tracked the movements of defendant Tyrone Hartsfield around Jacksonville on the night that former Jaguars offensive lineman Richard Collier was shot and paralyzed, representatives for three cell phone companies testified Friday. Hartsfield, 32, is on trial on charges of attempted murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in the Sept. 2, 2008, shooting of Collier. The football player was waiting in his car outside an apartment building near downtown Jacksonville when he was shot several times. One bullet tore through his spinal cord, leaving Collier paralyzed. Doctors also had to amputate his left leg. The wireless companies presented maps showing the general areas where cell phone calls were made by Hartsfield and received by Hartsfield in the hours around the time Collier was shot. Cell records linked Hartsfield's telephone to a nightclub and the Riverside area of Jacksonville, where Collier was wounded. They also followed the phone calls of Stephfan Wilson, who testified that he heard several shots when he sat outside in Hartsfield's car. They also gathered phone records of Jeff Collier, who prosecutors believe delivered the .45 gun to Hartsfield. Jeff Collier is a cousin of Hartsfield and not related to the victim. Representatives of AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint detailed calls made through their cell towers. The companies record which cell towers handle each of their calls and they can determine the general area where calls are made and received. On Thursday, Wilson testified as the state's key witness that Hartsfield was bent on revenge when he followed the player from a nightclub and opened fire. Witnesses have said Collier had knocked out Hartsfield in April 2009 in a fight in a Jacksonville nightclub. Collier was a backup on the Jaguars offensive line and was in his third year with the NFL after graduating from Valdosta State. He was out of football for a while, working as a produce manager for a WalMart supermarket.

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