Football star says he saw slaying
Posted by DAVID FERRARA February 20, 2008 6:36 AM
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BAY MINETTE -- Julio Jones, the No. 1 football recruit in the nation, sat on a Baldwin County witness stand Tuesday and told jurors about the night he saw an acquaintance fatally shot in the head.
Jones, a 19-year-old star wide receiver at Foley High School, who recently signed with the University of Alabama, testified about the events of May 12, when he was with his best friend, Lugene Gibbs, 18, and Gibbs' uncle, 33-year-old Marlin Lashane "Bill" Phipps.
Jones said that he and Gibbs watched from across a street as Labarron McDonald, now 27, shot Phipps.
The teenagers heard three quick shots from a handgun, they both testified, then the gun clicked. McDonald then yanked on Phipps' dreadlocks, pointed the barrel closer to his head and fired once more.
McDonald is on trial for capital murder before a Baldwin County Circuit Court jury.
Jones said he knew McDonald, who went by the nickname "Noonk" or "Nuke," since childhood.
Just seconds before the shooting, Jones, Gibbs and Phipps were hanging out in a parking lot on Fifth Avenue in the Aaronville community of Foley.
Phipps was standing outside his Chevrolet Suburban, talking to a man in another car, and Jones was sitting in the driver's seat with Gibbs in the back seat.
Gibbs said it was about 9:30 p.m. when he and Jones saw McDonald. They jumped out of the SUV and bolted across the street.
Wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt emblazoned with the Oklahoma Sooners logo, Jones took the stand after Gibbs, essentially repeating his friend's testimony.
On cross-examination, defense lawyer Pascal Bruijn asked Jones whether Gibbs was his best friend.
"Is that why he's standing in the door, keeping the cameras from taking your picture?" Bruijn asked Jones.
Prosecutor Michael Pylant quickly objected, and Jones didn't have to answer.
Jones and Gibbs rarely talk to each other about what they witnessed that night, Jones said.
It was Mother's Day, and Gibbs had gone to his uncle to borrow some money. Jones and Gibbs rode around alone in Phipps' vehicle for about 30 minutes before taking it back to him. Later that afternoon, Jones helped Phipps repair a tire on the SUV.
While defense attorneys tried to point out that Phipps had many enemies in the area, prosecutors focused on placing McDonald at the scene.
Gibbs, also a Foley High athletic standout, and Jones both denied smoking or drinking at all that day, but Gibbs said his uncle was a drug dealer.
During opening statements, Bruijn said his client was in Milton, Fla., when the shooting happened. Bruijn called Phipps a "violent, gang-banging drug dealer."
"He made enemies and beat up on people."
Phipps and McDonald had a long-standing feud, prosecutors said. Joann Schultz, who lives in the Aaronville community, testified that she drove up on the shooting just as it happened.
"I saw Nuke," she said. "He looked at me, put his head down and walked away."
One witness said McDonald wore a green shirt, while Schultz said McDonald's shirt was plaid. Gibbs said the shirt was black, while Jones said it was dark, but he didn't get a good look.
At the end of Jones' testimony, Pylant asked whether he fingered McDonald as the gunman because of pressure from his friend's family or from police.
"No, sir," Jones said. "Because I seen him."
The trial is scheduled to resume at 8:30 this morning.
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