Carl Trovous Moore, the subject arrested and charged in the homicide of Jacquard Petty

Police identified 21-year-old Jacquard M. Petty as the victim. Mr. Petty had pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated assault, simple possession of cocaine and underage possession of alcohol in March 2007.

Jury selection begins today in the first-degree murder trial of a 29-year-old man police say chased another man through a nightclub parking lot and shot him in the head more than three years ago.

Carl "Old School" Moore faces a charge of first-degree murder and reckless endangerment in the July 3, 2008, shooting, which killed Jacquard Petty outside the 2301 Club on Milne Street, the night of the victim's 21st birthday.

Dan Ripper, Moore's attorney, said he expects the trial before Criminal Court Judge Rebecca Stern to last until at least Thursday.

Ripper said there isn't anything in particular that delayed the trial three years.

"Sometimes cases end up getting prolonged for reasons that are not entirely articulated," Ripper said.

Moore has been held since his arrest following the shooting on a $250,000 bond in the Hamilton County Jail.

Assistant District Attorneys Brian Finlay and Bill Hall did not comment on the pending trial because of office policy.

About 2:30 a.m. on July 3, 2008, Petty had an altercation inside the club with a woman. Petty and the woman's boyfriend had a "beef," witnesses testified in previous hearings.

When Petty left the club, a man pulled a handgun from his waistband and began chasing Petty through the parking lot while shooting at him. Moore later was identified as the gunman, police said.

Petty ran down the street and fell. Moore shot him near his left eye, according to court documents.

Petty's sister, Nikita Petty, testified in previous hearings that she and a friend took her brother to the hospital, where he later died.

Moore denied being involved in the shooting at the time of his arrest.

At the time of the shooting, then-Lt. Tim Carroll with the Chattanooga Police Department's major crimes division said that Moore was "a random guy in the crowd who decided to interject because he had a gun," according to Chattanooga Times Free Press archives.

Contact staff writer Todd South at 423-757-6347 or tsouth@timesfreepress.com.