Defendant represents himself at BGF trial
Alleged gang member charged in shooting death of woman, 21
Wearing a striped button-down shirt with jeans and carrying a clear trash bag full of paperwork, alleged Black Guerrilla Family gang member Laser Womack opened his murder trial Wednesday by proclaiming his innocence.
Womack, 29, is charged in the March 2014 shooting death of 21-year-old Johniese Sheppard. Womack is representing himself during his trial.
Prosecutors say Sheppard had been staying at a house on Eighth Street in Brooklyn when Womack and his associates barged in looking for another person. They opened fire, prosecutors say, killing Sheppard and injuring two others.
Womack is charged with conspiracy, murder and two counts of attempted murder. Authorities say he is a member of the Black Guerrilla Family.
But Womack told jurors in opening statements that he is innocent. He called the evidence against him “false statements and facts.”
“I didn't have any involvement,” he said. The state's case “does not show or establish any guilt.”
Jurors heard testimony from Sherry Wallace, who lived at the home where the shooting occurred. She said Sheppard had been staying there temporarily.
She said Womack showed up at the house earlier on the day of the shooting and asked if Sheppard was home because he wanted Sheppard to give him a tattoo.
Wallace said it was strange because Womack had stopped coming over to the house after getting into a disagreement with Sheppard's boyfriend.
When Wallace left to go to work, she said, she ran into Womack. He asked if she was leaving for work, she said, and she told him she was.
“About 25 minutes later, I got the worst call of my life,” Wallace said. “My neighbor called me to tell me the girls had got shot.”
She said she returned to find police officers at her home.
“I kept asking, ‘Where is my granddaughter?'” she said. The child, who had been asleep upstairs, was not injured.
Womack questioned the accuracy of Wallace's account during cross-examination.
Assistant State's Attorney Charles Blomquist said the surviving victims identified Womack as the shooter. They are friends of Wallace and her two sons.
Mirial May, a relative who is raising Sheppard's young son, left the courtroom when an assistant medical examiner was describing the eight bullet wounds to Sheppard's body.
May carried pictures of her grandson. The 5-year-old has long braids.
“He looks so much like her,” she said.
She said the boy has a picture of Superman superimposed with his mother's face on his bedroom wall.
“He's doing fine,” she said. “He knows his mother is in heaven.”
The trial is scheduled to continue today.
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