Grandmother of slain football player continues to seek justice

Dorothea Garrett, the grandmother of slain football player, David Garrett, continues to fight for justice.

David Garrett, 26 was shot and killed on Oct. 11, 2014 at Cleveland’s Ultra lavish Lounge on W. 117th street after he was attacked by a man named Barry Blevins.

Barry Blevins and Jean Blevins who allegedly handed Barry the gun, were both charged in connection to the murder of David Garrett. Jean has not been apprehended and has a warrant for his arrest. There is a $2,500 reward for information leading to his arrest. Barry pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter with a firearm specification on August 1 and is expected to be sentenced later this month but only after a long fight by Dorothea to get Barry recharged.

Barry is facing a minimum of six years in prison according to Dorothea.

“We went to trial in June,” said Dorothea.

“We’ve been going back and forth for trial but when we went on the 1st of this month they let him cop out to voluntary manslaughter and they’re going to do his sentencing on the 31st.

It’s been a long fight for the Garrett family to finally get some sense of justice.”

Initially the charges against Barry were dismissed. According to Dorothea Barry was re-indicted because she kept him in the news and pressed prosecutors about an indictment.

“The prosecution tried to say they never dismissed it but Sarah Buduson showed documents on the news and it was dismissed,” said Dorothea.

“Later after this came out, here they go, they charged him and the other one.”

Dorothea says the fight started because the Blevin’s had seen David on TV and thought that he thought, he was somebody because he plays football.” She says David did not want to talk to them.

He was out on a date with fiancé Ciara Stewart.

Barry would be getting out next year if prosecutors had not charged him again because when he was initially caught he had guns and drugs on him according to Dorothea.

Dorothea had several meetings with prosecutors and detectives. They told her David had a gun and shot at Barry and that was the reason Barry shot and killed David.

“So our family requested to see the tape and they said Sal Awadallah, the lead prosecutor wasn’t in” Said Dorothea.”

“So we went to the front desk and Sal came in a few minutes later and they said they saw the tape with David on it but the pictures we saw were not David. He had locks in his hair at the time of his death. We saw the tape and we saw a bunch of guys jumping my grandson and David was grabbing at Barry and Barry was coming out of his T-shirt. That’s what David had in his hand.”

Stewart explained what was going on in the video as it played. The Garrets never really knew what was going on because the prosecutors stopped talking to them according to Dorothea until recently.

David was very much loved by his family and friends. He and his fiancé have a daughter named Dylan and were said to be a very close family.

David played football at Shaker, then Glenville and T.W. Harvey High School in Painesville.

He went on to play football at Fort Scoot Community College in Kansas and in 2009 received a scholarship to play for Kansas State University. He is even featured in the 2011 NCAA football video game.

David received a Bachelors of Science in Criminal Justice but also continued to play football. He played for the Kansas City Renegades arena football team.

Once David returned to Cleveland he got a job at the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Detention Center.

“My grandson worked through the judicial system yet he gets no justice,” said Dorothea.

“They tried to diminish his character but he has a degree in criminology, he had a food truck and he’s a successful African American male. He was getting ready to get married. He was trying to do things with his life.”