THE man accused of killing a TikTok star's son spoke to him on the phone just two minutes before the fatal shooting, police have revealed.
Reuben Gulley, 20, is accused of fatally shooting Ophelia Nichols' son Randon Lee, 18, at a gas station in Prichard, Alabama back in June.
Gulley and Lee spoke on the phone several times the day of the shooting, Prichard Police Detective Jason Hadaway said during a preliminary hearing on Monday.
Lee's girlfriend reportedly told police that Lee had sold marijuana to Gulley in the past and had a drug deal scheduled on the day he was killed.
Another witness also told police that he and Lee had communicated over Snapchat and that Lee had asked if it was okay to sell the drugs to Gulley, as reported by WKRG.
Mobile County Circuit Judge Spiro Cheriogotis ruled there is enough evidence to send the case to a grand jury.
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Security footage from the First Stop gas station shows a man in a red hoodie getting out of a black Toyota Camry with a weapon and leaping into Lee's car, Hadaway said.
The man then gets out of Lee's car about 22 seconds later and gets back in the Camry.
During the hearing, Gulley's attorney Chase Dearman denied the charges, arguing the only evidence prosecutors have against his client is the phone call.
“There’s not a single living witness, and the police stated that they cannot put a single person – they cannot put Reuben Gulley on that scene. They do not know he was ever there. They don’t know if he was ever in the car," said Dearman.
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Gulley turned himself in on August 18 because he did not want to run from the police, his attorney added.
Assistant District Attorney Lauren Walsh said outside the courtroom on Monday that while they have no evidence proving Galley was inside Lee's car, they believe he is the man in the red hoodie.
“We do believe he is the shooter at this point, but even if he was the driver, he would be just as guilty under accomplice liability,” she said.
Lee was shot dead just hours before what would’ve been his 19th birthday.
Nichols revealed that she learned “a lot of stuff” that they didn’t know before her son was killed, including that he sold drugs.
She said in a video: “We’ve been told that the detectives think that marijuana was being dealt. My son was meeting there, and either they tried to rob him or they did rob him but he was shot.”
Nichols asked her millions of followers for information in a desperate bid to catch her son’s killer.
She said: “I have never asked y’all for anything, but I need your help with this.
"Took from my children, my husband, and our family. My son was murdered. He was shot.
“And I have this hatred in my heart that I don't recognize. Because I've never felt hate for anybody. This individual took my son's life.”
In a heartbreaking video, she told her followers to “look at her son”.
The mom said she "would not stop" until the killer is found and prosecuted for Randon's murder.
Nichols revealed that Lee had “a lot of trouble” after his dad died.
She said: “He comes from good people, and he comes from a good family, and a good home but sometimes that just don’t matter. Sometimes that just don’t matter.”
MAMA TOT
Nichols is known online as Mama Tot and has more than 7.6million followers.
She made the decision to join TikTok during the Covid-19 pandemic, at a time when people were flocking to the app as a distraction from the strict nationwide lockdowns.
She found the theme for her platform when she saw not only positive responses to her videos but also bullying.
"I created a video one day for a girl that just, you know, wasn’t feeling too nice In her dress that day, and I made the video and it just blew up from there,” she told NBC15 News.
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Her nickname, Mama Tot, developed as a result of her calling every one of her followers "tater tot."
“It’s just a southern term of endearment in my house. It means 'I’m thinking of you,' or 'I love you,'” she told the outlet.
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