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Man Gets 25 Years For Nashville Nurse's Fatal Road Rage Shooting · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: December twenty twenty. You know, the holidays were almost there,
• 0:04
  but it's like not like anyone was really in the
• 0:06
  mood to celebrate, right, We were like keeping the pandemic.
• 0:09
  You know, remember those days. Every time you like went
• 0:11
  to the grocery store, it felt like kind of scary.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah. It was a super stressful time for everyone,
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  and for people working on the front lines, like in healthcare,
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  the pressure was just relentless totally.
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  Speaker 1: And that kind of leads us to what we're talking
• 0:22
  about today. This case that really shook Nashville and I
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  think became kind of a symbol of that whole time,
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  the murder of Kitlyn Kaufman. Right, So picture this, Your
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  young ic U nurse just finished a crazy shift and
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  you're driving home, exhausted, but like also kind of relieved. Right, Ye,
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  drive if you've done a million times before, But then
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  on this night, on I four forty, everything changes, and
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  you're right.
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  Speaker 2: To mention that routine thing, that feeling of just doing
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  your normal commute, you know, something so many of us
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  can relate to. I think it's part of what made
• 0:59
  this whole thing so disturbing, you know, like it.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Could happen to anyone exactly. So, Okay, Caitlin, she was
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  this dedicated nurse, had a bright future ahead of her,
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  love by her family and the people she worked with.
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  And then you have DeVante Hill and James Cowen, these
• 1:12
  two guys who come into the picture that night. Right,
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  We've got the police reports, court documents, even some really
• 1:18
  powerful testimony to help us understand what happened. Our goal
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  today is to go beyond just the headlines, beyond just
• 1:26
  like the what, and really try to figure out the
• 1:28
  why behind this whole thing, because it just seems so senseless, right, Okay,
• 1:33
  So let's set the scene. Caitlyn's car was found on
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  the shoulder of I four forty engines, still running, her
• 1:39
  foot on the brake. At first, it looked like a
• 1:41
  really bad accident, And that's.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Important to remember that initial assumption because it kind of
• 1:45
  explains how the case played out at first, Like, it
• 1:47
  wasn't immediately clear that this was a homicide.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: So like what clued investigators in that something was off?
• 1:54
  What made them realize this wasn't just an accident.
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  Speaker 2: It was actually a tip, a call from someone who
• 2:00
  had some info about what happened, and that tip it
• 2:03
  led investigators to Devonte Hill and James Cowen. And that's
• 2:06
  where things take a really sharp turn.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so this is where things get kind of crazy,
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  And by crazy, I mean like really sad, because from
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  what we can tell, Caitlin like had nothing to do
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  with these guys.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it seems like a total chance encounter, just a
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  terrifying example of wrong place, wrong time. And that's got
• 2:24
  to be part of why this case hit so hard
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  for people. It felt like it could happen to anyone,
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  right exactly.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: So what actually went down on I four forty that night?
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  What does the evidence tell us?
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  Speaker 2: Well, the biggest piece of the puzzle I think comes
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  from Devonte Hill himself. He confessed to firing the shots
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  from the suv Cowen's suv. According to him, Caitlin had
• 2:45
  cut them off in traffic or something.
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  Speaker 1: WHOA okay, so road rage. But I don't know, there's
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  something about that that just feels off, where they like
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  looking for a fight, to even know Caitlyn was in
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  the car.
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  Speaker 2: That's the thing. It's really not clear. There's nothing to
• 2:58
  suggest they were planning attack, no sign that they knew
• 3:01
  who she was. It really might have just been a
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  completely impulsive, horrible act.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, So we have to talk about hill state of
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  mind here. We know from the case files that he
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  was well, he was under the influence that.
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  Speaker 2: Night, right, and that's where things get you know, complicated Legally.
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  He admitted to using marijuana, cocaine, and xanax before the shooting,
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  so that obviously makes you question his judgment, you know,
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  his ability to think clearly about the consequences of what
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  he was doing.
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  Speaker 1: So does that change things legally? If someone is messed up,
• 3:34
  can they still be held responsible for what they do?
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  Speaker 2: That's the million dollar question, right, and it's tricky. The
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  law says intent doesn't have to be planned out. It's
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  about understanding that your actions have consequences even if you're
• 3:45
  you know, not thinking straight.
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  Speaker 1: And that's what the jury had to figure out. Which
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  man that must have been so difficult. What were the
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  main arguments during the trial.
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  Speaker 2: Well, the prosecution argued that what Hill did, no matter
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  what he was on, led directly to Caitlin's death. They
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  painted him as reckless, you know, like his actions showed
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  that he didn't care about human life and that it
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  was all fueled by the drugs.
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  Speaker 1: And the defense what was their site.
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  Speaker 2: They focused on Hell, not having a criminal record before this,
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  and his emotional state that night. They weren't saying he
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  didn't fire the gun, but they were trying to make
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  people doubt if it was intentional. Like they said, his
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  mind was totally clouded by all the stuff he'd taken.
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  Speaker 1: And in the end, the jury found him guilty of
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  second degree murder. For those of us who aren't lawyers,
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  what does that actually mean in this case?
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  Speaker 2: So in Tennessee, second degree murder means the killing wasn't
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  planned out beforehand, but it came from something really dangerous
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  that the person knew was dangerous, something that showed they
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  didn't care about human life. Basically, the jury believed Hell
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  didn't leave his house that night planning to kill someone,
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  but what he did was so reckless that it was
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  still second degree murder and he.
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  Speaker 1: Got the maximum sentence for that, twenty five years.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, which brings us to a really interesting part of
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  this whole thing. Remember James Callen, the guy driving the suv,
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  he was acquitted.
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  Speaker 1: Wait, hold on, the guy who actually pulled the trigger
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  gets twenty five years, but the guy driving goes free.
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  How does that even work?
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  Speaker 2: It shows you how tough it is. For the legal
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  system to figure out who's responsible when multiple people are
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  involved in something like this, like where's the line between
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  the driver and the shooter. It's a debate that comes
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  up a lot. In Callin's case, the jury decided there
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  wasn't enough evidence to prove he was in on it
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  with Hell or that he knew he was going to
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  shoot man.
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  Speaker 1: That's that's going to be tough to accept, especially for
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  Caitlin's family. Just goes to show that justice it's not
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  always so simple. God, I can't even imagine, you know,
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  the pain having to go through something like that, and
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  then to have to sit through the whole trial hearing
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  about how it all went down. Just awful.
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  Speaker 2: It's unimaginable really, And you know those victim impact statements
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  they can be so powerful. They really show the human
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  cost of these crimes.
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  Speaker 1: For sure. Any of those statements stand out to you.
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  Speaker 2: Caitlyn's mother, Kathy, what she said, Uh, well, it was
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  really tough to hear. She talked about how Caitlin always
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  wanted to be a nurse, how she dedicated her life
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  to helping people, even during a pandemic, and then for
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  her to be taken like that on her way to
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  work just senseless.
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  Speaker 1: It really is. How are you even supposed to make
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  sense to something like that? And then there's a question
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  of closure. Does a guilty verdict, a sentence, even the maximum,
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  does any of that really bring closure?
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  Speaker 2: That's a big question we ask a lot in these situations.
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  I mean, can anything the legal system does ever really
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  feel like justice when someone's life is taken, or is
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  it more about just acknowledging what happened, how serious it was,
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  and the impact on the people left behind.
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  Speaker 1: And then you have Hill apologizing in court. What do
• 6:41
  you think was that real remorse or was it like
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  a calculated thing.
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  Speaker 2: It's tough to say, impossible to know really what's going
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  on in someone's head in that moment. I think it's
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  up to each person to decide if those apologies mean anything.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a tough one. But this whole thing, it
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  wasn't just a Nashville story, right, It seemed like the
• 7:00
  whole country was paying attention. Why do you think that.
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  Speaker 2: Was I think it was a lot of things. Unfortunately,
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  the pandemic was happening, everyone was on edge, there was
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  all this uncertainty in the air, and then you have
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  this young woman a nurse, someone who was all about
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  helping others becoming a victim of such a random act
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  of violence. It felt like, I don't know, like it
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  represented the anxieties of the time, and.
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  Speaker 1: It makes you think about some pretty heavy stuff, you know,
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  road rage, gun violence, how fragile life really is. Makes
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  you wonder if it could happen to any of us
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  or all just one wrong turn, one bad encounter away
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  from something like that.
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  Speaker 2: It's a scary thought, but it's a good reminder. You know,
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  life is precious and we never know what's going to happen.
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  Maybe it makes us, I don't know, maybe it makes
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  us try to be a little kinder, a little more understanding.
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  We're all in this together, right, Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, A lot to think about for sure. And for
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  everyone listening, we want to know what you think, what's
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  stuck with you about this case? Did it change how
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  you view these things? These random acts said violence? Let
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  us know we always want to hear from you.