Caitlyn Kaufman, a 26-year-old Nashville nurse, was fatally shot as she drove down Interstate 440 westbound between Hillsboro Pike and West End Avenue on Dec. 3, 2020, Metro Nashville police said. Submitted photo

Davidson County, Tenn., prosecutors rested their case Friday, Jan. 27, against the two men charged with first degree murder in the December 2020 shooting death of Butler County native Caitlyn Kaufman.

Prosecutors presented 17 witnesses in their effort to prove that DeVaunte Hill, 23, and James Cowan, 29, both of Tennessee, killed Kaufman in a fit of road rage on Dec. 3 after she cut them off while she was driving to work at St. Thomas West Hospital, where she worked as an intensive care nurse.

After the district attorney’s office rested, Judge Angelita Dalton denied motions from the defense attorneys for both men to dismiss the charges.

The prosecution contends that Cowan was driving while Hill fired six shots from a 9 mm handgun at Kaufman. She died in her SUV on the shoulder of Interstate 440 in Nashville, moments after one of the bullets struck her in both lungs and her heart, according to testimony.

Jury selection took place Monday and Tuesday. Testimony began Wednesday after attorneys made opening statements, which included the public defender representing Hill saying that Hill was the shooter while Cowan was driving.

On Friday, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department’s detective Chad Gish testified that neither of the defendants’ cellphones was equipped with GPS, but he was able to retrieve text messages from Hill’s phone and Cowan’s girlfriend’s phone. He said Cowan had three phones, but one has not been located.