99-year sentence, murder conviction holds for local man

The murder conviction and 99-year sentence of a Texarkana man who killed a rival for his former girlfriend's affection was upheld by a Texarkana appellate court.
Quadreuy Rashad Flowers was 19 when he shot Derius Carter, 20, at about 3:30 a.m. Nov. 4, 2012, in Dusty Duckett's second-floor unit at the Brighton Manor Apartments. At trial, Duckett testified Flowers was enraged when he entered her home through an unlocked front door and would have shot her as well if the pistol he carried hadn't jammed. At Flowers' trial in May 2013, Duckett testified Flowers hit her with his pistol when the gun wouldn't fire a second round. Duckett ran to a neighbor's apartment as Flowers gave chase.
A jury found Flowers guilty after a four-day trial. In addition to 99 years in prison, the jury recommended a $10,000 fine.
On appeal, Flowers complained that the jury wasn't allowed to hear testimony from a woman who said Duckett gave her a version of events that did not implicate Flowers and
contradicted what she and the neighbor who helped her after the shooting said on the witness stand. The 6th District Court of Appeals headquartered in Texarkana determined that the trial court's denial of the witness' testimony didn't hinder Flowers' ability to put on a defense.
Flowers argued as well that investigators shouldn't have reviewed information in his cell phone. When Flowers was being interviewed at the Bi-State Justice Building by law enforcement, he claimed he was at a friend's house when Carter was killed. Flowers gave the investigators permission to get his friend's phone number from his cell phone but investigators reviewed Flowers' call log as well.
Flowers' appeal complains that the officers did not have Flowers' permission or a warrant to do anything but retrieve a phone number.
The call log on Flowers' phone showed Flowers called the man he claimed to be with at the time of the shooting not long after Carter was killed. The higher court ruled the consent Flowers gave might not have included the entire cell phone but did include the call history list.
But the 6th District's opinion, released last month, doesn't stop there. The higher court noted that even if a later court rules the call history list on Flowers' phone was off limits, the information gleaned from it and heard by the jury wouldn't have changed the trial's outcome.
Tevin Willis, the man Flowers claimed to be with at the time of the shooting testified at trial that Flowers was not with him as Flowers claimed. Willis said he had not seen Flowers in two years when Flowers called and asked him to provide an alibi.
Flowers is currently being held in the Ferguson Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Institutional Division. According to TDCJ's Website, Flowers will be parole eligible in 2042.
[email protected]