Fatal Downtown Shooting Suspect had Long Rap Sheet – WDEF News 12

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – We are learning more about the suspect in a murder of a prominent Chattanooga businessman.

On late Thursday night, Christopher Wright was shot and killed near Patten Towers.

On Friday, Chattanooga Police arrested 57-year-old Darryl Roberts in connection with the shooting.

We have since learned this is far from the first time Roberts has been in trouble with the law.

According to an affidavit we obtained from the Hamilton County Courthouse, Police were able to track down Roberts after reviewing footage from a Real Time Intelligence Camera.

The footage showed two males talking near a staircase at Patten Towers.

Another man, identified by the affidavit as Wright, walked past the two men and exchanged words with them.

The affidavit goes on to say that Wright after the brief talk continued to walk down the sidewalk but then turned back to look at the men, but did not re-approach them.

That’s when the affidavit says one of the men in a red shirt and dark pants produced a gun, walked up to Wright, put a gun up to his head and shot him.

Wright died on the scene.

Witnesses on the scene told Police that the exchange of words was a verbal dispute between the men, which led to the shooting.

They identified Roberts through a police lineup and by his nickname of “Too Tall”.

Roberts has a lengthy history in the criminal justice system.

According to Hamilton County Court Records, Roberts has dozens of charges and convictions spanning all the way back to the early 1990s.

His earliest serious conviction on Hamilton County’s record books was for the possession of crack cocaine in July 1993 after he pleaded guilty.

He was sentenced to 11 months and 29 days, and was released early on good behavior.

This would begin a series of recurring arrests and charges.

In the 30 years since that initial arrest, court records at least one charge in 20 of them, and several of the years he wasn’t charged with anything, he was incarcerated. 

Among the over 60 charges and convictions listed in Court records, some of the most serious include:

• 6 counts of assault over that 30-year time period that were bound over to federal courts or Roberts pleaded guilty.
• A conviction on aggravated robbery in 2000 where Roberts pleaded guilty.
• Three separate DUI charges, one which resulted in a conviction in 2017.
• 16 different theft charges varying in amount stolen resulting mostly in misdemeanor convictions.
• Four separate drug possession charges including the aforementioned crack cocaine conviction in 1993.

His most recent conviction was for Failure to Appear in July 2019.

Once again, he was sentenced to 11 months and 29 days, and was released early on good behavior.

In all, Roberts has so many dispositions on the Hamilton County General Sessions and Criminal Court Websites he alone takes up roughly three full pages of search results.

He is being held on a five million dollar bond at the Hamilton County Jail.

Meanwhile, Christopher Wright’s Celebration of Life and funeral will be held tomorrow and Wednesday at Baylor School.

Wright was only 38 years old and is survived by a wife and three children.