Why This Racist Streamer's Legal Problems Are Even Worse Than You Think | LAWYER EXPLAINS

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]This rage baiting racist streamer.

[00:00:02]>> You can't even look me in the eyes. I think you're a [ __ ] >> I think I know exactly what you're doing.

[00:00:07]>> Yeah.

[00:00:07]>> Just got the biggest FO wakeup call of his entire life. He goes by Chad the Builder and he was just charged with attempted murder after shooting a man just outside a Tennessee courthouse.

[00:00:19]According to reports, this was a verbal altercation that became physical when the other guy started hitting him. So Chud says he pulled out his gun and shot him in self-defense. He also apparently shot himself in the arm in the process.

[00:00:31]Not sure how that happened, but that's according to reports. But the thing is, there are a few problems with Chud the Builder's argument here, and they're not little. You see, he made a voluntary statement to the police while he was getting medical care. And by the looks of it, he recorded this statement by live streaming it to his account on the platform Pump. And based on what he himself says about the altercation, uh, he's going to have a hard time arguing self-defense. And on the other hand, his statement along with witness reports is likely actually to go a long way to prove the elements of attempted murder instead. And by the way, that's before the prosecutors are able to introduce to the jury examples of Chud's content to make an easy argument that Chud has likely been looking for an excuse to do what he did here. And you know, already things are looking pretty bad for him because after his arrest, the judge set his bond at $1.25 million.

[00:01:26]And you could tell that this news hit him hard.

[00:01:30]>> I'm on set initial bond at uh $1.25 million based upon the fact of how many people were in the courtyard. We're here at the courthouse and the seriousness of all these felonies.

[00:01:43]Andy file 1.25 million. I've been quite too familiar.

[00:01:49]>> Hello darkness.

[00:01:53]>> But believe me, in my opinion, this is about to get so much worse for him.

[00:01:58]Buckle up because this one's a doozy.

[00:02:00]Let's get into it.

[00:02:04]If you don't know who Chud the Builder is, congratulations. You live a fantastic life. I was you about a week ago, and I am so sorry for bringing you into this absolute cesspool with me.

[00:02:16]I've sadly had to steep myself into his gross content to make this video and I don't feel great about it right now.

[00:02:23]>> Bro, I'm straight up not having a good time.

[00:02:26]>> Anyway, Chud the Builder's real name is Dalton Levi. Either Eitherly or Etherly.

[00:02:30]I'm not actually sure how that's pronounced. Regardless, he's the 28-year-old Tennessee based live streamer behind the Chud the Builder persona. And to say he's controversial is, in my opinion, a major understatement. He's an IRL streamer who now streams to a cryptocurrency connected platform called Pump, which honestly I had never even heard of before. Now, his whole grift is walking around in public harassing strangers, specifically black people, by hurling racial slurs and using degrading labels referencing primates to dehumanize them.

[00:02:59]This inevitably enrages the person that he's targeting, and then he just doubles down. And sometimes those interactions even turn physical, and that seems to be the whole aim of what he's doing. Like the time he pulled out pepper spray on a guy after the man tipped his hat off his head.

[00:03:15]>> Literally, all you do IS TALK ABOUT YOUR >> I'M SORRY. I'M a >> Come back over here.

[00:03:20]>> Okay. Okay. Let's not Let's >> Come back over here.

[00:03:22]>> Let's not fight. Let's not fight. I >> touch me again. Touch me again.

[00:03:25]>> I don't want to get pepper sprayed. I really don't.

[00:03:27]>> Go pick up my hat.

[00:03:29]>> You heard me.

[00:03:32]And then there are other instances like this, like uh this time when he flat out said that he plans to use lethal force if this guy came back at him to continue their argument. [ __ ] ass [ __ ] >> I'm about blow his brains out. He pulls back around here, I'm about to blow his brains out.

[00:03:50]>> Gee, why do so many people hate this guy? Now, in my research, I have seen him say that he does all of this in the name of free speech. But, and I'm saying this as a lawyer, I don't think that he fully understands what that phrase actually means.

[00:04:04]>> You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

[00:04:09]>> You see, free speech under the First Amendment means that the government can't restrain your right to speak with a handful of narrow exceptions. It does not mean freedom from social consequences for being a hateful person who says vile things just to get a rise out of people. And unsurprisingly, because of that content, he says he gets targeted and called out by angry people in public who hate what he does. It's been purportedly escalating for months, which is also not a surprise. Among his many scuffles with people out in public, he also has a harassment charge from November 2025. Then there's a civil debt collection case from February 2026, which is a separate matter, which we'll talk a little bit more about in a minute. And this is aside from two restraining orders that are in place against him. And then on top of that, just 4 days before the shooting that's the main subject of this video, he also has another arrest on his record.

[00:04:59]According to reports on May 9th, 2026, he was live streaming inside Bob's Steak and Chop House on Broadway in Nashville, even though staff specifically told him not to. And when they kicked him out for that, he refused to pay his tab, which was around $370 in total. And as a result, he got charged with theft of $1,000 or less and disorderly conduct.

[00:05:21]So that's his recent track record going into May 13th when this whole shooting incident happened. Keep all of that in mind because some of it is definitely going to be coming up again. Anyway, on the day of the shooting, May 13th, 2026, Chud was at the Montgomery County Court for a hearing in another matter, specifically this was the civil case that I mentioned earlier that was brought against him actually for debt collection by Midland Credit Management, Inc. Now, we're going to come back to the specifics of that hearing in just a second because everyone else covering this story seems to be glazing over it, but personally, I think it's actually pretty relevant and I would bet that this is something that gets brought up at trial. So, we'll talk about that in a second, but before that, we're going to talk about what happened after the hearing. According to local reporting, at around 1:15 p.m., Todd walked out of that hearing into Millennium Plaza, right outside the courthouse. He claims he encountered a group of guys pointing and laughing at him. And instead of just walking away, he decided to confront them. Here it is in his own words in a statement to first responders after the shooting, which he live streamed to his audience on Pump.

[00:06:25]>> Walked past and he was sitting on the corner.

[00:06:27]>> I walked up to him cuz they they're pointing at me. Uh-huh.

[00:06:30]>> They were laughing. They were pointing at me. And I said, "What's up, guys? How y'all doing?"

[00:06:34]>> I said, "Y'all like the Do you like the new suit?"

[00:06:36]>> He said, "Walk away from me." I walked away from him.

[00:06:39]>> He came back up to me. He literally said, "I have PTSD. I feel like I'm in He said, "You start saying all that chimp out [ __ ] to me, I'mma hit you." He hit me, started wailing on me. Even after I had to defend myself by shooting him, he's still wailing on me.

[00:06:55]>> But here's an important detail.

[00:06:56]According to the arrest warrant, Chud turned his body in a bladed stance and reached for a firearm in his jacket pocket before the physical altercation happened. Also, one witness said that the other man punched him and then three to four shots were fired. Apparently, surveillance footage even captured a ricocheting projectile hitting nearby walls, which is important for aggravating factors about safety to other people in the area. After this scuffle, both men were transported to area hospitals. And the other man, after he was hit multiple times, was rushed to Vanderbilt for emergency surgery.

[00:07:28]Meanwhile, Chud, genius that he is, apparently shot himself in the arm in the process. But after getting treatment for that wound, he was then booked into McGomery County Jail. By the way, if you need help with a real legal issue in your life, contact us at the Bites Law Group at byes.law. We're partnered with firms all across the United States. So, if you follow the link in the description below, we can see if we can help find you quality legal representation in your jurisdiction.

[00:07:53]Anyway, as I was saying, after all of this, Chud was officially charged with four counts. Those were attempted criminal homicide, employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, aggravated assault, and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon. But for purposes of this discussion, we're going to zero in on the big one, attempted murder. And to explain what that means under Tennessee law, we have to break it down into two parts. First, there's the elements of firstdegree murder. And second, there's the elements of criminal attempt. Now, one way to define first-degree murder under Tennessee law is a premeditated and intentional killing of another. So, we've got three essential elements.

[00:08:29]First, there is premeditation. Second, there's intent to kill another person.

[00:08:34]And third, there is the actual killing of another person. Now, let's start with the element of premeditation. This means that the intent to kill had to be formed before the act itself took place. In other words, the mental state has to be sufficiently free from excitement and passion to be capable of premeditation.

[00:08:51]But, and this is crucial to understand, there is no minimum amount of time for premeditation. That decision to kill can also actually be made in an instant.

[00:09:00]Now, when the prosecution can prove everything except that the victim actually died, we look at criminal attempt. And under Tennessee law for criminal attempt, a person commits it when they act with the intent to cause a result and take a substantial step toward committing the offense. So, put it all together and here's what the prosecution really needs to show here.

[00:09:19]First, Chud intended to kill the guy.

[00:09:21]Second, he formed that intent before he pulled the trigger. And third, he took a substantial step towards killing the guy, you know, by firing multiple shots at him. So, now that you understand what the prosecution has to prove here for attempted murder, let's talk about the evidence that is currently known to the public. Get ready because this is where things really start to get bad for him.

[00:09:41]First, his own live stream statement that he made to the police makes some pretty awful admissions. Admissions that he is never going to be able to take back.

[00:09:50]>> Walked past him. He was sitting on the corner.

[00:09:52]>> I walked up to him cuz they they're pointing at me.

[00:09:55]>> They were laughing. They were pointing at me and I said, "What's up, guys? How y'all doing?"

[00:09:59]I said, "Y'all like the you like the new suit?" He said, "Walk away from me." I walked away from him.

[00:10:04]>> He came back up to me. He literally said, "I have PTSD. I feel like I'm in He said, "You start saying all that chimp out [ __ ] to me, I'mma hit you." He hit me, started wailing on me. Even after I had to defend myself by shooting him, he's still wailing on me.

[00:10:24]>> Where's your weapon at?

[00:10:25]>> They have everything.

[00:10:26]So, as you just heard, the first problem here is that he admits that he shot the guy. Then the second big problem is he admits that he intended to shoot the guy. Now, he does say that he was acting in self-defense, but self-defense is an argument for a legal justification for an otherwise criminal act. To successfully make that justification, you have to admit that you intended to shoot. We'll get more into detail about self-defense in just a minute, but for now, just keep that bit in your mind for later. So now looking at this whole statement, the only element that may not check off totally is premeditation. But don't worry, the way I see it, the prosecution has plenty of evidence to draw on for that one, too. First, like I said earlier, according to the arrest warrant, even before the altercation got physical, Chud drew his gun out on the other guy. And now, I would actually fully expect prosecutors to use that moment as the latest moment at which Chud formed the decision to shoot.

[00:11:17]Remember when I said that we would come back to that civil case hearing that he had walked out of right before this incident? So, let's do that right now.

[00:11:24]No one I've seen seems to be talking about this, but do you know what that hearing was actually for? This wasn't just some routine status hearing. First of all, the case for that hearing was where he was being sued for unpaid debt.

[00:11:34]And in that hearing specifically, he had just had default judgment entered against him. So, let me explain that really quick so everyone can understand the significance of that. If you get sued and you get served a complaint for that lawsuit, you have a certain amount of time to show up in court and respond.

[00:11:50]If you don't, you can lose that entire lawsuit by default. That means the judge essentially says, "Plaintiff, you win on all of your claims because the defendant simply is a no-show. Go forth and collect on your judgment." And in most, if not all, states, default is a two-step process. First, plaintiff requests an entry of default. That's where they essentially put all of the dates of the filings in front of the judge and say, "This defendant knows about this lawsuit and isn't showing up." So, the judge says, "Yep, defendant is in trouble here. Default." Then later, the plaintiff can also move for a default judgment. And this is when the judge finalizes it, saying, "Yep, plaintiff officially wins." Now, in between those two steps, a defendant can come in and beg the judge for mercy and ask them to set aside the default. In order to do that, they have to like fully promise to fully participate and beg and grovel and talk about how much of an idiot they were for not participating or talk about some sort of justification or otherwise some kind of an excuse for why they haven't participated so far. It doesn't always work and you are almost guaranteed a verbal lashing from the bench, but it is possible. But otherwise, once default judgment is entered, that second step, you are cooked. It's over. And so looking back at Chud the Builder's case here on May 13th, Chud was at this hearing not for step one, but for step two. And according to the docket, default judgment was actually entered against him and the case was closed out.

[00:13:18]So he walked out of that hearing officially owing the plaintiff $3,466.

[00:13:24]And here's a little fun fact for you.

[00:13:26]The judge that later got assigned to Chud's attempted murder case is the same judge that just entered default against him. Funny little world, isn't it?

[00:13:34]Anyway, so now think about all of this in context. He walks out of that hearing, his ass handed to him by the judge. He's already a guy with a long documented history of vile antagonism towards black people and even making threats to shoot them. And now he's having a particularly bad day. On top of that, prosecutors can totally use this to argue that the premeditation formed the moment that he walked up to those men who were pointing and laughing at him. And so that's already pretty bad, right? But we can actually add another layer that makes this even worse for him because apparently about a week before the shooting, he posted this on X.

[00:14:08]Apparently, it was in response to someone giving him crap for the restaurant arrest. Just so you can fully understand it, both of the censored words in this post are racial slurs aimed at black people. And this is clearly a threat of violence against them as a group. Now, I do want to note that I could only find screenshots of this post, but according to Grock, this is something that Chud likely posted in early or miday and then later deleted.

[00:14:32]And now, he may have in fact deleted it.

[00:14:34]But make no mistake, prosecutors can subpoena X to get that post back and introduce it as evidence of his mental state going in, specifically that premeditation. And you know, from there, it actually continues to get worse for Chud. You see, reports are also quoting a separate post from May 7th where TUD allegedly wrote, "I will defend my life with lethal force. Do not approach me with intent to threaten bodily harm."

[00:14:58]So, at this point, you might be thinking, "Okay, but what about his self-defense argument? Surely, he has something there, right? After all, he said the other guy was wailing on him even after Chud shot him." But the thing is, it's very important to understand that self-defense is an affirmative defense. That means that the burden to prove it shifts from the prosecution to the defense. And to meet that burden, the defendant has to prove every single element of the defense. Now, under Tennessee self-defense law, you generally have to show three things for this. First, he has to show that he had a reasonable belief that there was an imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury. Second, he has to prove that the danger was real or that he honestly believed that it was real at the time. And third, he has to show that his belief was founded on reasonable grounds. And now, when we're talking about self-defense using lethal force, we are looking for some kind of a factor that elevated this risk to the defendant. We're talking about a gun, a knife, a steel pipe, a revving car with the defendant standing right in front of the front bumper. Otherwise, a simple battery without anything else on top of it isn't going to cut it. It probably would for self-defense in an assault case, but not a case involving lethal force. And so, one of the problems for Chud is all he says is the guy was beating him or wailing on me, as he put it. And the thing is, he was filmed and photographed immediately after the shooting. Looking at his face, it doesn't look like he was just pummeled to the point that he thought he was close to dying. Now, sure, he could have major bruising on his body below the neck. And there would be medical reports about the extent of his injuries, but if those reports actually show minimal damage, that is more evidence to doubt first that he even had an actual belief that his life was in danger. So, you put all that on top of everything that we've already talked about here, and that self-defense argument starts looking really weak. So now without going into detail about the penalties for these charges, let me just tell you if convicted on all counts, he is looking at decades in prison. And Judge Poland, that's the judge who's overseeing his new criminal case, already explained the sentencing exposure at the arraignment.

[00:17:02]From what he said, attempted criminal homicide alone carries a 15 to 60ear range, plus a mandatory 6-year firearm enhancement at 100% service. So, the way I see it, what we're looking at here is a guy whose own live stream statement to the police basically locks in most of the major elements of attempted murder.

[00:17:20]And then, in my opinion, his own social media history essentially hands the prosecution premeditation argument on a silver platter. And on top of that, his self-defense theory has a number of major flaws that I don't think he's going to be able to overcome. And so, in my opinion at least, he is screwed here.

[00:17:36]See, as you can see, the more you around, the more you're going to find out.

[00:17:42]>> But those are my thoughts. What do you think? Do you think he has a real shot at self-defense here? Or do you think his own live stream and his own other prior social media content bits essentially convict him? And do you think the prosecution actually should be allowed to bring in all of that prior content and his prior expost and all that to prove premeditation? Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below. Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed this or at least found it interesting or informative. And if you did, I would love it if you would hit the like button. It does help us with the YouTube algorithm gods. And if you need help with a real legal issue in your life, contact us at the Bites Law Group linked at the description below. Now, something that can make a big difference in these cases is whether or not your case is in the hands of a good lawyer. And so many people are out there fighting these battles without the best person on their team. I started Legal Bites because I saw this massive gap between how the legal system actually works and what most people understand about it. When you don't know your rights and you can't understand legal jargon that's used, when you're intimidated by the whole process, that's when you're most vulnerable. Making these videos, breaking down trials, explaining the law in ways that actually make sense to most people, that has been incredible. But after years of doing this, I wanted to do more. Because the thing is, when you're facing a real legal problem, you need someone in your corner who gets it.

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