Three teenage boys walked into an Akron alley.
Two ran out, leaving the third lying dead.
The question is: Which of the two shot the other?
Summit County prosecutors say Marcus D. Price, whose murder trial began Monday, fired the execution-style shots at his friend, 17-year-old Ahmed Hill.
“It is a tragic, senseless homicide,” Assistant Summit County Prosecutor Jennie Shuki said in her opening statement.
Defense attorney Adam VanHo, however, says the shooter was David Quarterman, whom prosecutors made a deal with in exchange for his guilty plea to a lesser charge and testimony against Price. “The state cut a deal with the devil,” VanHo told jurors.
The jury of five men and seven women will now have to decide which version they believe. The trial in Summit County Common Pleas Judge Tammy O’Brien’s courtroom is expected to last through the end of the week.
Price, 19, of Akron, is charged with aggravated murder, murder and tampering with evidence in the Feb. 15, 2015, shooting of Hill. The murder charges include gun specifications.
Quarterman, 19, pleaded guilty in February to complicity to commit voluntary manslaughter, a first-degree felony. Prosecutors dismissed charges of murder and tampering with evidence. The plea agreement requires Quarterman to “testify truthfully” against Price. Quarterman will be sentenced May 19.
Price and Quarterman pointed to the other as the shooter in their initial interviews with detectives. Their accounts of what happened were identical, except for who pulled the trigger. Both told detectives they didn’t know what happened to the gun used in the shooting, court records show.
Shuki said Hill, Quarterman and Price hung out together along with other friends at Price’s house on Feb. 14, 2015. She said they were smoking marijuana and both Quarterman and Price showed off guns they had, with Price’s being a 9 mm that prosecutors say was the murder weapon.
When Hill, Quarterman and Price woke up the next day, Shuki said the three of them left about 2 p.m. and walked down an alley behind some houses. Shuki said Price shot Hill in the back of the head once. Hill dropped to the ground.
“The defendant shot him one more time in the back of the head — because one was not enough,” she said.
Shuki said Quarterman and Price ran to a friend’s nearby home where Price washed himself off with bleach and changed his clothes and shoes. Quarterman also put on new shoes.
Shuki said Quarterman knew something bad was going to happen that day because Price was upset about something he saw on Hill’s cellphone that led him to believe Hill might be out to rob or kill him. Price, she said, decided to strike first.
Shuki said Quarterman will testify in the trial and jurors can judge his credibility.
VanHo, however, said jurors also will hear from Price, who will give a different account of what happened that cold afternoon. He said Quarterman made a deal for himself and put all of the blame on Price.
“Quarterman was trying to cover his rear end,” VanHo said.
At the end of the trial, VanHo predicted the jurors will “not be able to find Marcus Price guilty.”
Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @swarsmithabj and on Facebook: www.facebook.com/swarsmith.