Homicide detectives are charging Raphael Jobehdari, 18, with Saturday night’s murder of Zepplenin Phillips, 16, near Phillips’ home on Hallborough Way in Hermitage.
Officers responded to the scene at 6:30 p.m. Saturday and found Phillips lying in the roadway wounded by gunshots. He was rushed to Vanderbilt where he died.
Jobehdari was identified as a suspect during the night after detectives determined that Phillips had communicated with him about buying a gun and sent him money. SWAT officers this morning assisted in the execution of a search warrant at Jobehdari’s Carl Miller Drive residence. The car that Phillips approached on Hallborough Way just before he was shot was located there and impounded. Three guns were seized during the search.
This is the second time this year that Jobehdari has been involved in a fatal shooting. He and Gavin Dauzart, 18, exchanged gunfire with each other during a drug-related robbery on January 31 in a parking lot on Highway 70 South in Bellevue. Dauzart died from his wounds. Jobehdari was shot in the abdomen and leg and spent several days at Vanderbilt recovering. Jobehdari claimed that he shot Dauzart in self-defense. After a review of the investigative file with the District Attorney’s Office, no charges were placed.
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Raphael Jobehdari, 18