CINCINNATI — Surveillance video released by the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office Thursday shows the moments leading up to a deadly Aug. 31 hit-and-run outside a Kroger.
An indictment filed Thursday charged Taahviya Chapman, 24, with two counts of murder, one count of aggravated murder, two counts of felonious assault, one count of attempted murder, and one count of endangering children.
Court documents allege Chapman intentionally drove into two people outside of the Kroger store near Spring Grove Avenue on Aug. 31. Christopher Scott Griffith, 58, was one of two people hit. He died at UC Medical Center several hours after the crash. Another man, Jawon Khalid Lunsford, suffered a broken leg.
Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said during a press conference Thursday the incident took place due to jealousy.
“While he was in Kroger, she apparently went through his cell phone and believed that he had been in an inappropriate relationship with her sister,” he said. “As Jawan left Kroger, she took this 3-ton vehicle and plowed into him and plowed into Christopher Griffith — an innocent man, on a cane, walking across a crosswalk to get to Kroger.”
Surveillance video shows Chapman allegedly getting out of the disabled vehicle and running toward Lunsford.
“One of the more disgusting parts of this to me is that after she plows into these two people, killing the one man, her car was disabled ... exited the vehicle, leaving her 8-month-old baby in the car, proceeds to go to her boyfriend and beat him,” he said.
Greg Griffith, the brother of the man killed in the hit-and-run, said he watched every frame of the surveillance video.
"It’s a horrible thing. It’s one of the most heinous things I’ve ever seen in my life," he added. "I want to know what exactly happened to my brother, and what she did to my brother. How that all took place. That’s important for me to get some closure out of this."
If convicted, Chapman faces life in prison.
"It’s not about vindictiveness. It’s not about revenge. It’s not about justice," Greg Griffith said. "It’s that I think this woman, based on what I saw is so out of control of her rage that she’ll never be able to control it. And she’ll hurt, or kill someone again, if she’s not put in jail, and kept there."
Greg said he’s choosing to remember his brother by all of the gifts he gave to so many.
“My brother was a wonderful, wonderful person,” he said. “He was very technically accomplished. One of the best sound engineers in the world.”
During his career, Griffith was a sound engineer for Harry Connick Jr., Aerosmith, ZZ Top, Prince, The Temptations and the Four Tops.
In May 2013, Griffith was involved in a motorcycle crash that left him seriously injured.
"He was paralyzed from the neck down after his motorcycle accident," Greg Griffith said. "He slowly, but surely recovered until he could walk. He needed a cane, but he could walk and function, live on his own."
Greg said the deadly crash took the life of a special person.
“That hurts very deeply to know what's happened after all he did, and after all he struggled to overcome,” he said.
For the past nine years, Greg said his brother worked hard to get back on his feet.
“Laying in the bed, paralyzed from the neck down, he looked at me and said, 'I will walk again.' That’s how determined he was. How strong he was,” he said.
Outside of Over-the-Rhine’s Dunlap Cafe, a mural is being painted showing Griffith on the motorcycle his brother said he loved so much. He was a fixture at the restaurant.
Greg said he hopes justice will prevail for his brother, and for Lunsford.
“I don’t understand why someone would do this," Greg Griffith said. "I really want her to pay for what she’s done. I mean the maximum penalty, whatever the murder charge is going to be, that she pays for this. This is senseless."
Nevertheless, Greg said his brother’s gifts will carry on well beyond his death.
“To remember the real gifts he gave people by being such a good sound engineer,” he said.
Scott gave another gift — life — to 75 others by being an organ donor.
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