Steve McNair's Death
Kazemi worked as a waitress at Dave & Buster’s.
Metro Nashville Police Department concluded that Kazemi had murdered 36-year-old McNair, who was married at the time with four children, in a jealous rage over perceived affairs with other women, as well as personal anguish. Police determined that, after shooting McNair while in his sleep, Kazemi her own life. Police said at the time that they weren't pursuing any suspects and did not think McNair's wife was involved.
Police concluded that Kazemi had purchased a 9mm handgun through a private dealer named Adrian Gilliam Jr. Gilliam was the only person prosecuted in the shooting and received a 30-month sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm after pleading not guilty.
Hill, who wrote Playbook to a Murder and Incomplete Pass: The Murder of Steve McNair Revisited, suggests that Gilliam may have had a relationship with Kazemi, as evidenced by 200-plus text messages.
McNair was known for owning guns and had a Glock locked away in his home, so Hill wonders why Kazemi would need to purchase a gun if one was already available to her.
Other Suspects?
Gilliam and his friend, Tony Smith, provided contradicting statements about their alibis that night. Gilliam had told the police that he was at Smith’s house and that they were drinking and doing cocaine. But Smith said the opposite, according to Hill.
“When the police went to talk with Tony, he said, ‘Listen, I’m not going to lie to this guy. He wasn’t here that night,’” Hill tells A&E Crime + Investigation of Gilliam.
Furthermore, Hill says that Kazemi had no plans to see McNair that night. At 10:23 p.m., she texted him if he wanted to go have drinks, but he declined, claiming he was “having trouble with the kids getting to sleep,” per the police report.
Kazemi eventually told McNair she’d be over after she got off of work at 11 p.m., and McNair texted her at 12:38 a.m. on July 4, 2009, saying he was “on my way” to the condo where he they were both eventually found dead.
Hill also notes the presence of Robert Gaddy, a friend, former teammate and business partner of McNair’s, who called 911 after being told the news by McNair’s friend, Wayne Neely, who found the bodies.
Emily Andrews, a friend and former roommate of Kazemi, told police that McNair previously informed her he had fired Gaddy after he discovered $13,000 missing from a restaurant business venture between the two men. Andrews said McNair told her he fired Gaddy over the missing money.
Will Steve McNair’s Case Be Reopened?
The Nashville Police Department never released the official photos from the crime scene.
On Episode 6 of the Fall of Titan podcast, host Tim Rohan spoke to McNair’s mother, Lucille, and Kazel’s sister, who used an assumed name. According to Rohan, Lucille had two meetings with the NPD. She had requested to see the crime scene photos with family friend Alvin "Doc" Simpson by her side and three bodyguards.
Simpson described the first meeting as contentious and alleged that, in the second meeting, two NPD detectives were present as well as a psychologist to assess Lucille’s state of mind.
A bodyguard said that the NPD didn’t show Lucille all the crime scene photos, which the NPD refuted to Rohan. Simpson said the crime scene photos they did see “looked staged,” absent of a lot of blood and items scattered all over.
Simpson characterized the police as “very rude” and “disrespectful.”
“They wanted to us know emphatically that we were non-factors, we did not matter whatsoever and they were sticking to the story and there would be no opportunity to compromise anything,” he continued.
Hill, who left the Nashville Police Department in 2006, says that after publishing his book in 2010, the police department disputed his claims and refused to reopen the investigation.
In June 2010, after a grand jury team concluded there should not be a new investigation into McNair and Kazemi’s deaths, then-Nashville Police spokesman Don Aaron told The Associated Press, “The Nashville Police Department ... stands by its investigation into this matter, which determined after an examination of all the evidence that McNair was murdered by Kazemi, who then killed herself.”
“Ask him for his resume … How many murders did [he] work on the police department?” Robinson said in the documentary. “Zero. And [he] wasn’t even doing investigative work when [he] left the police department. His first investigation was, guess what? Steve McNair.”
When asked by A&E Crime + Investigation whether they’d reopen the investigation, Nashville Police Department said in a statement, “The answer to that is 'no.'”
Still, Hill holds out hope.
“Sixteen years ago, I made a promise to both families that I wouldn’t stop until the person who killed your family is brought to justice,” he says. “Steve was taken way too soon, and he gets a bad rap. Jenni is getting a bad rap; she was a scorned lover.”
