When police entered Charles Robert Smith’s home in June 2023, where three people lay dead outside, they found a window shutter thrown into the living room and a bullet lodged in the nearby television. Meeting them with his hands up, Smith claimed he only “shot the people because they shot at his house.”

Going into court Thursday in Smith’s triple murder trial, however, none of the state’s eyewitnesses testified to seeing anyone else with a gun. But by the end of the day, the jury had heard from two people who admitted to lying about another shooter: a relative they were trying to protect.

According to their testimony, Nelcy Goss, Mario Mireles’ sister, and her husband Ken deceived detectives at the onset of their investigation and up until weeks before jury selection.

Nelcy Goss said she had not seen her brother Luis Mireles with a firearm on June 11, 2023 — according to her husband, he began firing while she was taking cover behind a vehicle — but when she heard about the weapon, she instructed Ken not to say anything.

“I had already lost one brother,” Nelcy Goss said. “I didn’t want to lose another.”

The defense challenged the truthfulness of their testimony, trying to ascertain whether anyone else had shot at their client. Facing 42 charges, including 24 felonies, Smith is claiming self-defense. But Ken Goss, who said he had initially taken the handgun before Luis Mireles grabbed it, told the jury that the return fire took place after six people had already been shot.Luis Mireles was the only person other than Smith who fired a gun that day, the Gosses said.

When asked about the timing of their coming forward, shortly after the couple were charged with shoplifting, both said they were neither protecting themselves nor Luis Mireles.

Ken Goss said testifying was “the right thing to do.” When asked how Luis Mireles reacted to his decision, the brother-in-law said it was “not pleasant.”

Anne Arundel Circuit Judge J. Michael Wachs issued a media order shortly after trial began barring reporters from interacting with witnesses or jurors in the case.

On June 11, 2023, a parking dispute between Smith’s mother and Mario Mireles quickly escalated into a mass shooting, the second in Annapolis in nearly five years.

Mario Mireles, a neighbor who shared years of hostility with the Smith family, was killed, as were his father Nicolas Mireles and friend Christian Segovia. Three others were shot but survived. All of them had been celebrating a birthday down the street.

Much of court Wednesday and Thursday involved the testimony of Annapolis Police and FBI officials who helped process the Paddington Place crime scene. With it, the jury reviewed the first concrete evidence that someone, at some point, had fired a gun at the defendant.

According to a senior team leader from the FBI, who helped oversee evidence collection, while two bullets were found inside the Smiths’ home, they only recovered one cartridge from a neighboring yard. She said the team, even after looking on their hands and knees, couldn’t find any others.

Though the bulk of the state’s witnesses did not report seeing another gunman, Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess said in her opening statement that Luis Mireles, Mario Mireles’ brother and Nicolas Mireles’ oldest son, was handed a firearm during the chaos and shot at Smith “to try and stop this mass shooter from killing anyone else.”

Luis Mireles, witnesses said, also threw the shutter through the Smiths’ front bay window.

Public defender Felipe Gonzalez, who’s representing Smith alongside Anne Stewart-Hill and Denis O’Connell, told the 12-person panel to pay heed to inconsistencies in the state’s case.

He also cast doubt on law enforcement’s preservation of the crime scene. The Annapolis Police Department, Gonzalez argued, did not have the resources to control the 1000 block of Paddington Place after the shooting. He told the jury their search warrant on the party house was met with “massive resistance” and that by the time the FBI arrived, over three hours later, the scene had “not been adequately secured.”

The crime scene tape did not close off the house where the Mireles’ party was taking place until the next day, according to an FBI agent, while the gun allegedly used by Luis Mireles was never found. At the end of his opening arguments, Gonzalez asked, “What else was missing?”

Attorneys were given the chance to question two Annapolis Police officers who went to Paddington Place, each with multiple responsibilities.

One blocked off the area with yellow tape while the other, a crime scene technician, found pieces of evidence marked by his colleagues before taking photos of the block. Both also helped execute the search warrant; the first, a 7-year veteran, noted “anger” from the partygoers, which a witness characterized as confusion.

Neither officer said they saw anyone tamper with evidence.

Throughout the trial, the defense has asked witnesses about items and bags they brought to the birthday party and when they left the Annapolis neighborhood.

One witness testified that people walked through the yards along Paddington Place, against instructions from authorities, and went inside the house to check on their kids.

Paul Johnson, one of the three gunshot survivors, said his former partner was able to meet him at the hospital shortly after his arrival.

And another witness, a work friend of Mario Mireles’, said he told authorities a permitted handgun was in his car. During that man’s cross-examination, Gonzalez, through a question, noted that the witness had to tell police a gun was inside their crime scene.

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