Girlfriend of NC rapper accused of killing boy says he asked her to claim gun was hers

The day after 9-year-old Z’Yon Person was killed in a Durham drive-by shooting, Rhonni Lyons was worried her boyfriend might be the culprit, she said.

She had read a newspaper article describing the incident, and the car was very similar to the one owned by her boyfriend Antonio “Lil Tony” Nathaniel Davenport Jr. and the father of her baby daughter.

“I asked him about it,” Lyons testified Wednesday in a federal trial for Davenport, who is charged with committing the shooting to move up in the Eight Trey Gangster Crips, a violent Durham street gang.

“He denied it,” Lyons said, but he then started calling around to see about getting his maroon car painted matte black.

Those and other statements made by Lyons supported prosecutors’ contention that Davenport and two others mistakenly killed Z’Yon, a rising fourth-grader at Penny Road Elementary School in Cary, and shot his 8-year-old cousin in the arm on Aug. 18, 2019, as they sought revenge on rival gang members.

Davenport is on trial for murder, weapon and racketeering charges in U.S. District Court in the Middle District of North Carolina in Greensboro. If found guilty of all three charges, he could face two life sentences plus 10 years or more.

Prosecutors say Davenport, along with two fellow Eight Trey Gangster Crips, went out that night looking for rivals who had attacked Davenport at a Durham mall four days earlier and taken his chain.

A video of the assault was posted on social media, shaming Davenport and his gang.

On the night of the killing, Davenport was driving, with Dival Nygee Magwood in the front seat and Derrick Lamont Dixon the back. The trio stalked the SUV that Z’Yon was in with his sister, three cousins and aunt as they drove on Leon Street, getting ready to turn on North Duke Street to go to Pelican’s Snoballs, prosecutors said.

When the light turned green, Davenport drove around the SUV and Davenport, who had a 9 mm gun and Dixon, who had a .40-caliber firearm, opened fire, prosecutors say. Z’Yon was hit in the forehead and died the next morning, and his cousin was hit in the arm.

Davenport denies knowingly being involved in the killing and being a full member of the Eight Trey Gangster Crips.

Davenport was only an associate member of the gang, which recruited him because he was a rapper on the rise, his attorneys argued in opening statements and court documents. Davenport was a member of rap trio 83 Babies, which was touring the country and had signed record contract the day he was attacked at the mall, his attorney said.

Davenport’s attorneys argue the rapper didn’t know anything about Dixon’s and Magwood’s plan to start shooting at the SUV. Davenport didn’t fire a gun, they argued, but Dixon shot two guns that left behind a trail of more than 20 shell casings.

Davenport was agitated after the attack at the Durham mall, Lyons testified, and she admitted to buying ammunition for him the day before the shooting. She also explained how police found a gun linked to the shooting in a car she was driving and how Davenport asked her to tell police it was hers.

Dating since 2018

Lyons and Davenport grew up together, she said, and started dating around 2018 and had a daughter together, who was a baby at the time of the shooting. Davenport often stayed at her apartment, she said.

Lyons said that as far as she knew, Davenport was a member of the Eight Trey Gangster Crips, and she had met the person that was over him in the gang along with other gang members, including Magwood and Dixon, whom she knew as Paco and Smacc, respectively.

She never had heard of the other gang that Davenport now contends he was a part of, Lyons said.

Drug sales, straw purchase of ammunition

Lyons said that Davenport made his money by rapping with his group 83 Babies and selling marijuana and heroin.

In one instance, Lyons said expanding on the drug sales, Davenport said he was shipping some clothes to her mother’s house from California. When her mother opened the package, she found marijuana and called Davenport’s mother and told her that somebody better come get the drugs or she was calling the police.

On the day before the killing, Davenport sent Magwood a message on social media asking if he needed ammunition, according to court documents.

Lyons, Davenport and their daughter then visited Mace Sports in Mebane, where Lyons purchased 9 mm and .40-caliber ammunition.

“He said he was going to practice shooting in Bahama in the woods,” Lyons testified.

In September 2019, Davenport went out of town and left a 9 mm gun that police have since linked to the shooting sitting on the driver-side floor in a silver Volvo parked in front of his mother’s home, Lyons said. When Davenport was out of town, Lyons went and picked up the car and put the gun in the glove compartment

When Davenport returned he was arrested and held in the Wake County jail on previous domestic violence charges.

Davenport insisted that Lyons return the Volvo to his mother’s house.

Lyons complied on Sept. 27, 2019. A Durham sheriff’s deputy pulled her over and searched the car as part of a coordinated police stop, meaning Lyons knew the stop was coming along with a false concealed weapon charge as a cover for her cooperation.

While police searched the car, Davenport called Lyons from jail.

“Dude, is that in the car?” Davenport said in the telephone call that was played for the jurors.

“Yes, Antonio,” Lyons said.

Davenport later asked her to claim the guns was hers, Lyons said. Davenport told Lyons she didn’t have anything to worry about, her phone would let police know that she wasn’t anywhere near the scene in which Z’Yon was killed, Lyons testified.

Testimony resumes Thursday at 9:30 a.m.

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