Man accused of killing Midtown chef to be held on second-degree murder charge

The executive chef of Lafayette's Music Room suffered 16 stab wounds with a 4-inch folding knife later found in the passenger-side seat of the car of a man accused of the killing, Memphis police investigators testified Tuesday.

Police officers and a detective testified during a preliminary hearing for Jonathan Brush about the details of chef Jody Moyt's killing, including that "there was a large amount of blood, pooled very thick" where Moyt was killed.

"He (Moyt) was slumped over, unconscious and bleeding profusely," Memphis Police Officer Sidell Perez who arrived on scene after another officer initially responded to the call.

After hearing the testimony, a judge ordered Brush, 57, held on a $1 million bond on a charge of second-degree murder. A grand jury will hear Brush's case, but no date was released for the hearing Tuesday.

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The first officer on scene, Matthew Bell, testified Brush said Moyt hit his car twice before running him off the road on eastbound Sam Cooper Blvd. Brush then told the officer Moyt left his Toyota Camry, approached Brush and threatened to kill him.

According to the Bell's testimony, it was after that interaction Brush said he stabbed Moyt.

When asked about his investigation of the body, Bell said he followed a "trail of blood" to the driver's side of Moyt's Camry where a "wound on the upper thigh appeared to be where most of the blood was pulsating from."

Assistant District Attorney Karen Cook also showed surveillance video of the crash that showed both cars coming to a stop, the Camry along the side of the road and Brush's Mercedes Benz off toward the tree line. It then shows Brush leaving his car, approaching Moyt's car — while he is still inside — and then leaving a few seconds later.

The 23-second-long video clip did not show Moyt leaving his car.

Memphis Police Detective Sergeant Eric Dobbins testified to accompany the video. Dobbins said data from the Mercedes' black box provided evidence that the car was only struck once.

Blake Ballin, the attorney representing Brush, said toward the end of the preliminary hearing that Brush acted in self-defense. According to Ballin, the object in Moyt's lap — which investigators testified were his phone and keys — could have been a weapon.

"We know that Mr. Moyt had something laying in his lap, something that appeared to have been near Mr. Moyt's hand — whether that was in his hand or not we don't know," Ballin said. "But trying to look at this from Mr. Brush's standpoint — the standpoint of somebody who has just been run off the road in a city where, frankly, you've got to assume people have got a gun, you got to assume people might hurt me. That's just the reality of our city and the way it is right now."

Brush previously served 10 years of a 22-year sentence for second-degree murder in Walton County, Florida, after being convicted of throwing a man off an 11th-floor balcony in 1991 according to the Tampa Bay Times.

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Judge William Anderson, who presided over Tuesday's hearing, lowered Brush's the bond to $1 million and agreeing that the case is best charged as a second-degree murder.

"In a normal accident you don't carry a knife to another person's car and you don't stab someone 16 times all over their body while they are sitting in the car," he said. "Mr. Brush had a story that bolstered his position after he had time to think about the trouble he was in, possibly. He is bolstering his story by saying, 'For no reason at all, this guy hit me twice and rear-ended me, ran me off the road.' Then would bolster the claim by saying Mr. Moyt walked up to him and threatened to kill him. There is no indication of any means to carry that out, no weapons, no gun, no knife. And, at that point, is where Mr. Brush stabs him 16 times — to the death."

Lucas Finton is a news reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com and followed on Twitter @LucasFinton.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Midtown chef's accused killer to be held on second-degree murder charge