Nearly a year after a juror prompted a mistrial, witnesses took the stand Tuesday in the trial of a Charleston man accused of shooting a Jackson County man in 2015 on the city's West Side.
Jennifer Carney and Ross Hayes testified Tuesday that they were in a car in the parking lot of Littlepage Terrace Apartments on Dec. 27, 2015. Both said they were addicts, waiting for Carney's cousin, Bryan Rogers, to purchase heroin.
But Rogers, 29, of Ripley, never came back to the car. He was shot in the lower abdomen at around 2 p.m. near the apartments on Charleston's West Side. He later died from internal bleeding.
Tremaine Jackson, 25, of Charleston, was charged with murder in Rogers' death. The case is being brought again before Judge Charles King, nearly a year after the original August 2016 trial ended in mistrial following a juror's visit to the scene of the crime.
The juror, 31-year-old Taniqra Y. Payne, then described it to other jurors and then lied to the court about it. She was charged with perjury and later pleaded guilty to making a false statement, a misdemeanor, and sentenced to two years probation.
The jurors were told Tuesday not to read, watch or listen to news accounts of the story, talk to any friends, relatives or fellow jurors about the case or conduct their own investigation.
Jackson admitted to killing Rogers in a police interview after the crime, saying Rogers stole heroin from him.
"I was just like BOOM, I just shot one time bro," said Jackson, in a transcript of the confession that was presented to the jury Tuesday.
In opening statements for the trial, Kanawha County assistant prosecutor Maryclaire Akers asked the jury to find Jackson guilty of first degree murder.
Jackson's attorneys claimed Jackson had been on heroin for three days and was coerced into making a confession by investigating officers.
As the prosecutors interviewed several witnesses, they showed the jury photos of Rogers' body and wounds, the area around the crime scene and the inside of the Westside Market & Deli, the convenience store that Rogers crawled into after he was shot.
Witnesses included Jonathan Arden, a medical examiner and forensic pathologist who performed Rogers' autopsy; the manager of the Westside Market & Deli; Carney; Hayes; Cpl. Jason Webb, the Charleston police officer who gathered evidence at the crime scene; Detective Adam Kuhner, who investigated the case for the Charleston Police Department; and Dale Whitehair, the safety and security coordinator for the Littlepage Terrace Apartments.
Jurors passed around the .380 shell casing from the crime scene. When asked, Kuhner said he had "no direct knowledge" if the casing was related to the murder. He said it was one of the most common in the United States.
No gunshot residue was found on Jackson. However, he was apprehended by police a day after the crime. He had time to shower and change clothes, which would erase residue, Kuhner said.
Jackson claimed Rogers stole heroin from him earlier in 2015, and that he kept a gun on him until he saw Rogers again, according to the confession to police.
The crime occurred on two days after Christmas 2015, Hayes and Carney said they picked up Rogers and went to panhandle in order get enough money to buy heroin. Afterward, they went to Littlepage Terrace Apartments, where Rogers had a connection.
They waited in the car for 20 minutes, when a man approached them and said, "Are you with Bryan? You might want to get the 'F' out of here. He just got shot," Hayes said.
Jackson, believed by police to be a heroin dealer, had spotted Rogers and shot him at close range, according to prosecutors.
The trial will continue at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in King's court room in the Kanawha County Judicial Annex.
Reach Kayla Asbury at kayla,asbury@wvgazttemail.com, call 304-348-3051 or follow @kasbury_ on Twitter.