NC rapper charged with killing 9-year-old Z’Yon Person in Durham takes the stand
Tears poured down Ashley Ragland’s cheeks as she watched the man accused of killing her son walk to the witness stand.
Her mother, sitting beside her, bowed her head with her eyes shut tight and shook it in disappointment while gripping a tissue she used to dry her own tears.
The judge had sent the jury on a break Tuesday afternoon as Antonio ‘Lil Tony’ Davenport, wearing a light blue button-down and gray slacks with shackles around the ankles, made it into the witness chair.
Davenport is on trial facing federal murder, gun and racketeering charges that could result in two life sentences, plus another 10 years or more. He is charged with killing 9-year-old Z’Yon Person on Aug. 18, 2019, in Durham to advance his position in the Braggtown-based Eight Trey Gangster Crips gang.
He has repeatedly stated he wasn’t involved in the shooting, though he was driving the vehicle where shots were fired.
Gang culture
During his testimony, Davenport said he grew up in the Durham Public Schools system and learned about gangs as early as elementary school. He started selling and using drugs as a ninth-grader at Hillside High School and became interested in gang culture to attract “girls” and gain “protection.”
When asked what he meant by “protection,” he answered, “people would have my back” citing violence in Durham.
But it wasn’t until he was 21, the first time he was incarcerated at the Durham Correctional Center on domestic violence charges, that he first joined a gang — the Eight Tray (83) Hoover Crips.
Davenport recalled being “successfully jumped in” to the gang by being beaten “by two members for 83 seconds in the [jail] bathroom.” Once an official member, he said he was expected to “ride for the homies” — supporting fellow gang members in fights and being loyal to them.
Outside of prison and living in Braggtown in Durham there were no sets of the Hoover Crips, so he affiliated with the Northside Eight Trey Gangster Crips. Davenport said he was never officially initiated into Northside. However, he said he was “ a couple of guys’ little brother” in the gang.
Davenport denied drug dealing for the gang and insisted the money he earned from dealing “marijuana” and “some heroin, cocaine, pills and lean on and off” was for personal gain. He also stated that he was never involved in thefts or robberies.
Davenport’s rapping career
Asked by Alex Carpenter, one of his attorneys, about his career in rap music, the now 27-year-old said he has enjoyed rap music his “whole life” and started writing his own lyrics when he was 9, when he became “old enough to understand” rap.
“My cousin taught me how to write rhymes,” Davenport said, adding he filled journals and notebooks with songs.
His career officially launched when he joined the Durham-based group 83 Babies, gaining traction from sharing music and videos on social media and performing at parties.
That success turned into signing with Atlantic Records, part of the Warner Media Group. Davenport and the other 83 Babies members signed with the label on August 14, 2019, the same day Davenport was assaulted at The Streets at Southpoint mall by members of a rival gang.
He said signing with the record label made him more visible in the community.
Z’Yon Person shooting
After the assault, Davenport says he “was mad” and learned the identities of some of the people who had assaulted him and were bragging about it on social media.
Davenport claims he did not “go hunting for opps,” which is short for ‘opposition’ or members of a rival gang. He had been wearing an ankle monitor that tracked his location via GPS.
“It would’ve been plain stupid,” Davenport testified. “Law enforcement was already investigating us.”
Four days after the assault at Southpoint, Davenport said he spent most of the afternoon and evening with co-defendants Dival Magwood and Derrick Dixon Jr. driving around Durham in his burgundy Honda Accord.
Davenport said he was in the area near 9-year-old Z’Yon’s home near Leon Street for a drug deal. The boy and other family members were inside a Ford Escape SUV on their way to get snow cones when, at a stop light, Dixon started shooting at the vehicle with Davenport’s gun under the impression it was one of the people who had assaulted Davenport at the mall, he said.
Davenport said he told Dixon and Magwood, who was also in the vehicle, not to shoot or “do anything stupid.”
“I told Dixon not to shoot out my car,” Davenport said.
Davenport got choked up when Carpenter asked him when he learned he had been accused of shooting Z’Yon.
Davenport admitted to painting his vehicle matte black when he became concerned about being linked to the shooting. He also tried to get rid of his gun.
“I knew it would link me to what happened,” he said.
Government prosecutors and the defense counsel will deliver their closing arguments Wednesday afternoon in Greensboro. The judge will then give the jury instructions before they deliberate and give their verdict.
Reporting by Virginia Bridges contributed to this story.
This story was originally published July 6, 2022 at 3:16 PM.
CORRECTION: A Wednesday story online incorrectly reported the age of Antonio “Lil Tony” Davenport Jr., who was convicted Friday with the 2019 murder of 9-year-old Z’Yon Person in Durham. Davenport is 27 years old.
