Michael Dunham, father of Justice Dunham, holds a photo of Justice during a vigil at Menchville High School in Newport News on Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021. Demari Batten, 18, is on trial for second-degree murder in the killing of Dunham, who was fatally shot on Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021, following an altercation after a basketball game between Woodside and Menchville High School. (Trent Sprague/The Virginian-Pilot)

NEWPORT NEWS — Demari Antonio Batten said he “thought it was going to be a fun night” when he went with a friend to a basketball game at Menchville High School last December.

But during the first half of the heated game between Menchville and Woodside High School, the 18-year-old got an ominous text message from a friend.

“They’re staring at you, watching everything you’re doing,” the friend warned him about another group of students. “Make sure you be careful. If you want to, leave early.”

Text messages introduced at a murder trial in Newport News Circuit Court this week show a group of students was mad at Batten about an Instagram post he made that they interpreted as mocking of their gang.

“We really about to do his a** tomorrow,” the student who was later shot and killed texted another student the night before the basketball game. During the Dec. 14 game, another student texted that he saw Batten near a door and was watching him.

“Spot him, got him,” that student wrote.

What happened next led police to charge Batten with second-degree murder. Woodside student Justice Michael Dunham was shot in the school’s parking lot as fans cleared out of the packed basketball game.

Batten’s trial began Monday, and a jury could start deliberations in the case as soon as Tuesday afternoon.

Demari Batten, 18, was arrested Dec. 15, 2021, in connection with a shooting that kill a 17-year-old boy at Menchville High School.

Batten, a student at Warwick High School, testified Tuesday that he decided to leave the game early because of the warning from two friends, and he asked the friend he came with for the keys to his car.

He left the tied game with only a couple of minutes left to walk to the parked car, where he had a gun on the car’s floorboard. He said he sat in the passenger seat, began charging his phone, and then got out and stood outside the car, looking for his friends as people filed past.

But that’s when he locked eyes with Kaveon Eley, one of the students who had a beef with him. Eley began walking toward him, Batten said.

“Don’t, don’t,” Batten said he told Eley.

Batten said he tried to get quickly into the sedan and close the door, but Eley held it open and punched him once in the face. Then, he testified, Eley reached over him and tried to grab his gun from the floorboard.

Batten said he picked up the gun — a Glock 9 mm with an extended magazine and 22 rounds. He said he tried to block Eley with his body, pointing the weapon toward the driver’s side where no one was standing.

Just then, a student in a ski mask — later identified as the 17-year-old Dunham — ran around the front of the car and began opening the driver’s side door. Batten said Dunham also began leaning partially into the car and began trying to grab for his gun.

“Instinctively, I closed my eyes and fired the weapon,” Batten said. “I wanted them to back off of me and get away and to leave me alone.”

He fired one round. Dunham — a student and football standout at Woodside — was struck once in the chest, and died at the scene about eight minutes later.

Batten testified that he initially didn’t know he had struck anyone and didn’t actually intend to.

“They tried to jump me, they tried to jump me,” he told responding police officers, who were already at the game working crowd control. The officers put him in handcuffs and arrested him.

Batten testified that though he knew Dunham from years earlier, he didn’t initially know he was the person he shot because of Dunham’s ski mask. Batten said he only learned the student was Dunham after he was named in the arrest warrant.

Michael Dunham, father of Justice Dunham, is hugged by a community member during a vigil at Menchville High School in Newport News, Va. on Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021. The vigil honored 17-year-old Justice Dunham who was fatally shot following a basketball game between Woodside and Menchville on Tuesday, Dec. 14. (Trent Sprague/The Virginian-Pilot)

During a 2 a.m. interrogation with police a few hours after the incident, Batten gave detectives conflicting stories about the shooting.

First, he denied the gun was his, before later admitting he bought it “on the street” shortly after his 18th birthday two months earlier. He then told detectives he was “wrestling” with Dunham and Eley over the gun when “the gun went off” — before soon acknowledging that he was the only one who ever touched it.

“I was wrong to say that,” Batten said, saying he panicked in his first ever interaction with police. “I haven’t even had a ticket.”

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Mary Button contended Batten was inconsistent on another point.

On the night of the incident, she said, Batten told detectives he was afraid the others were going to see his gun and get ahold of it. But in his court testimony Tuesday, Batten said Eley and Dunham were actively trying to grab the gun.

On the other hand, Batten’s defense attorney, James Broccoletti, said later that Batten told detectives “three times” that night that Eley and Dunham were going for his gun.

Broccoletti asserted after the evidence was presented that the charges should be reduced from second-degree murder to manslaughter, calling the case a clear “heat of passion provocation.” The lawyer contends the jury should totally acquit Batten on self-defense grounds.

But Button, for her part, said malice could be inferred by the violent act with a deadly weapon, and she contends Batten acted unreasonably under the circumstances by opening fire inside the car.

Circuit Court Judge Bryant Sugg ruled that he would send the case to a jury.

Peter Dujardin, 757-247-4749. pdujardin@dailypress.com