Kendu Petties tells police he ‘never shot nobody’

CEDAR RAPIDS - In a 2015 interview with police, Kendu Petties adamantly denied being involved in the shooting of two 'kids” in a southeast residence and even denied being in Iowa on April 2, 2014, when the two were killed.

Petties, 33, who was initially arrested in September 2015 on a warrant for a lesser charge in Mesa, Ariz., told two Cedar Rapids investigators while in jail that he'd heard about two 'kids” being killed but that he 'never shot nobody in my life.”

Petties said he was working two jobs in Mesa and that he had eight children from different women. Two of the women lived in Cedar Rapids but claimed he wasn't in the city in April 2014.

The audiotape of the police interview was played for jurors Monday during Petties' trial in Linn County District Court.

Petties is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit a forcible felony in the fatal shooting of Quintrell Perkins, 22, and Sierrah Simmons, 20, while they were in the home of Perkins' father at 1708 Fourth Ave. SE on April 2, 2014.

According to testimony, which started Feb. 15, Petties allegedly fired 11 times at the house. Perkins and Simmons were not the targets but were in the house with two other adults and two children. None of the others were harmed.

The defense argues Petties wasn't the shooter, claiming it was another man who testified against Petties and hasn't been charged.

The prosecution continues its case Tuesday. The trial is expected to wrap up this week.

In the recording from Mesa, Cedar Rapids police investigator George Aboud tells Petties that several people are saying he was involved in the shooting that night.

Petties responds that he didn't care because he wasn't there. He claimed he didn't have any issue with Ken Fonville or Joseph Perkins, the two men that Petties allegedly was going to shoot that night. Petties said he had heard those rumors on the streets but that it was not true.

Petties asked why police waited a year to arrest him if they had this information.

Aboud said they didn't have the information in 2014 but had recently had a break in the case.

Aboud was referring to Devonte Barnes sending police some videos of Petties talking about the shooting and admitting to shooting Fonville and Joseph Perkins that night. But Aboud didn't tell Petties what police had, only made a mention of a recording.

'I didn't kill nobody,” Petties said again. 'I'm not who you guys are looking for.”

Petties then became angry and was yelling that he didn't do it as Aboud and another investigator continue to ask him to tell the truth.

After the recording was finished playing Monday, Sara Smith, Petties' lawyer, asked Aboud if police had received multiple reports after the shooting that Bruce Williams was the shooter? And didn't police also have a text message from Williams to his girlfriend showing Williams saying was going to kill Fonville and Joseph Perkins?

Aboud said that was correct.

First Assistant Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks asked Aboud if new information indicated a different suspect. Aboud said it did, when Barnes came forward with the videos in 2015.

In earlier testimony, Maybanks played the interviews of Williams and Ashley Pennington, who testified during trial and in the interviews that they drove Petties near the home, that he walked down the alley toward the house and then they heard gunshots.

Williams said when Petties came back to the car, Petties said he 'lit up” the house. Both Williams and Pennington had lied to police about their involvement before saying Petties was the shooter.

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