Following King’s testimony and closing arguments, the jury began deliberation at about 5:15 p.m. Thursday and went home about 8:30 p.m. Deliberation will continued.
On the morning of March 11, 2016, King said he got up early to help his father prepare for transport to dialysis. He heard gun shots, which is not unusual in his neighborhood, he said.
King, who was 19 at the time, lived on Fourth Street and worked at a nursing home where he had training in CPR. He said he saw a car against a house on Charles Street, around the corner from his residence and went out to see what happened and if he could help. His first thought it was an overdose, he said.
“I went up to the door ... pushed the door handle. I noticed it had two bullet holes in the window. Handle came off,” King said.
He then walked to his father’s house on Chestnut Street. He said he was traumatized by what he saw in the car, didn’t want to be considered a suspect and didn’t want the shooter to come after him.
A DNA expert testified King’s DNA was on the door handle and fingerprint analysis also indicated a match to King’s prints on two fingers.
King admitted to lying to police by making up stories about what happened on the morning of the shooting and making up a reasons for his DNA being on the the car.
Hamilton police Detective Frank Botts said that in the summer of 2016 King told him he was asleep at home and knew nothing about the shooting.
A second statement came after police knew his DNA was on the door handle. In that statement, King said he was returning from his father’s home, saw the police lights, walked up to the car on the passenger side to look in the window.
King was pressed by Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser for a reason why he continued to lie to police and didn’t tell the truth until taking the stand.
“In my community anyone talking to police or looking at the police are looked down on,” King said.
Gmoser pointed out King continued to change his story when questioned by police over the years, including about the shoe found on his porch that is similar to prints found leading to the shooting scene, and even when his DNA was found on the door handle.
When indicted, Gmoser said King still didn’t “come clean.”
King said it “was already too late for me,” and said he was under the influence of methamphetamine when talking with detectives after his arrest.
On Wednesday, a fellow Butler County Jail inmate, Justin Vinson, took the stand and said that King, whom he knows as “Beefy,” told him he killed Knight during a robbery attempt.
Vinson said that in July, while talking during a recreation period at the jail, King told him “it was supposed to be a robbery, he couldn’t get what the guy had, and he shot him.”
Vinson said King told him the car door was locked and he tore off the handle. King also told him he tried to cover his actions by telling police a story that he looked into the passenger side window, which would account for his DNA on the door handle.
King said he did talk with Vinson and told him about the scene, the door handle coming off the car and lying to police about how his DNA got on the handle, but he claimed he did not say he shot or robbed Knight.
King told the jury he was telling the truth on the stand because “I am under oath, raised my right hand … I have nothing to gain.”
Prosecutors say DNA and fingerprints on a car door handle, the shoe print and his continued lying for years points to King’s involvement in the homicide.
But the defense said the person who killed Knight on the morning of March 11, 2016 is still a mystery, continuing after years of investigation.
Knight, 18, died in his black Hyundai in the 300 block of Charles Street. The vehicle was in front of a vacant house resting against it. Knight was slumped over the steering wheel with a large amount of blood inside the vehicle and two bullet holes in the driver’s side window.
Prosecutors say Knight set up a meeting to sell marijuana on the cold, damp morning via cell phone communication with someone who he thought was a female named “Bri Princess.” Gmoser said “Bri Princess” may have been King or another person, but King was involved in the plan to rob King.
He was directed to a specific location on Charles Street and was told to keep his door unlocked for a quick transaction, according to prosecutors. But when he got to the meeting, a person came out of the dark, shot three times and struck Knight in the head and neck. He died at the scene.
Knight’s car moved forward and was found by police with the engine still running. A handle to the driver’s side door was found in the road about 30 feet away.
The jury was expected to begin deliberations Thursday after closing statements.
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