After 20-year-old Sahel Kazemi gunned down former NFL quarterback Steve McNair on July 4, 2009, numerous questions immediately emerged regarding whether the case was as simple as it appeared to be. A year later, police in Nashville are still dealing with the question of whether the case was as simple as it appeared to be.
At some point, however, Nashville police will be perceived as protesting too much.
On Friday, they held a press conference to address multiple “myths” regarding the case. Per Chris Echegaray of the Tennessean, the police dealt with four of them.
First myth? “A pistol registered to Steve McNair was found inside the condo after the bodies were discovered.” Police claim the pistol was in McNair’s car.
Second myth? “Adrian Gilliam, who sold Kazemi the murder weapon, dated a woman on a professional football team that rented a nightclub owned by a McNair friend who found the bodies.” (Yeah, we had to read it three times before it made any sense to us.) Police say the club was never rented by the team in question.
Third myth? “Gilliam promoted concerts at the friend’s nightclub.” Police claim it didn’t happen.
Fourth myth? “The keys to McNair’s car, parked outside the condo, were missing.” Police contend that the keys were on McNair’s body.
Frankly, we’d never heard any of those myths. And none seem to be nearly as potent as the facts reported in October 2009 by Armen Keteyian of CBS.
Gilliam was characterized last July as a bit player, a guy who had a gun for sale and who sold it to Kazemi. But Keteyian reported that Gilliam -- a convicted murderer -- had been in daily contact with Kazemi in the weeks preceding the shootings. In all, they exchanged more than 200 calls and text messages.
The day before the supposed murder-suicide, they exchanged 49 calls and texts.
Last December, police admitted that Gilliam was pursuing a relationship with Kazemi, but they claimed that cell phone records show that Gilliam was in the Spring Hill/Smyma area at the time of the shooting.
It’s unclear whether anyone has considered the possibility that Gilliam’s cell phone was in the Spring Hill/Smyma area at the time of the shooting, and that he had someone else make calls from it to cement his fairly simple alibi.
But, hey, why should we suspect a convicted murderer of, you know, murder? It’s much simpler to conclude that a girl barely out of high school was capable of pumping two bullets into a man’s chest -- and two more into his head -- while he was sleeping.