— Tyrone Hall took the witness stand for 90 minutes Thursday in his three-day murder trial in Allegany County Circuit Court, at times speaking matter-of-factly about his fear the night last April when he shot two Frostburg State University basketball players, killing one of them.
But when defense attorney William Brennan asked Hall about the moments right before he shot Ellis Hartridge Jr. of Washington and Brandon Carroll of Waldorf, Hall's calm demeanor cracked, and his voice choked with emotion as he told of the seconds that led to the 20-year-old Carroll's death.
He testified that Hartridge had threatened him on the phone, challenged him to a fight and then arrived at his off-campus residence with Carroll and another man. The 21-year-old Glen Burnie man also said that what frightened him most was when he walked onto his porch holding a 12-gauge shotgun and Hartridge taunted him and cursed at him.
"I said, 'Please just leave,'" Hall told the jury. "He just started laughing. He said, 'What are you going to do with a gun? I'm still going to [mess] you up.' I'm scared out of my mind. He saw the gun and hadn't moved."
The former Mount St. Joseph soccer standout didn't break down on the stand, as Hartridge had done when mentioning Carroll's name during testimony Tuesday, but Hall collapsed into the arms of a relative after court was recessed for lunch. He later closed his eyes and held the hands of another supporter.
In recounting the confrontation for the jury and a courthouse packed with family members and friends of the accused and the victims, Hall said that he went from holding the gun on his left shoulder to holding it at his hip and pointing it in Hartridge's direction, firing it when Hartridge lunged at him and firing again when Carroll charged him.
Patrice Britton of Baltimore, a former Frostburg student who had dated both Hartridge and Hall, said during testimony Wednesday that she had texted Hartridge that night to tell him that Hall slapped her at a party earlier in the evening. When Hall heard Hartridge was coming over because of Britton's account of the confrontation at the party, Hall recalled what she had earlier said about her former live-in boyfriend.
"All she told me was that they had a violent relationship, he pushed her head into a wall, kicked in a door and threw a drink on her at a club," Hall said Thursday.
A few hours after the shooting, which occurred about 4 a.m. April 18, Hall was charged with first-degree murder, first-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault. His fate will be decided by a jury of seven men and five women, who after being given a choice Thursday by Judge W. Timothy Finan, chose to begin their deliberations Friday morning rather than Thursday afternoon.
Lawyers for both sides finished their closing arguments shortly before 4 p.m.
Allegany County State's Attorney Michael O. Twigg asked the jury to find Hall guilty on all counts because Hall "took a shotgun to a fistfight" — meaning that he used unreasonable force in trying to protect himself after Hartridge called to say he wanted to fight Hall.
Knowing that Hall admitted to loading the gun with two shells even before Hartridge and his friends arrived, Twigg demonstrated during his closing how Hall had to pump the gun before shooting Carroll. He also pointed out that Hall had four friends with him at his apartment, saying that his group outnumbered Hartridge's five to three.
Twigg said that it would have been more reasonable for Hall to call police, lock his front door or just leave the premises if he knew trouble was on the way. Instead, Twigg said, Hall was itching for a fight himself and didn't care if it turned deadly.
"He wasn't going to take it," Twigg said. "He wasn't going to be beaten up or kicked around in his own house. This is really what it's about, his power play. We have one boy who's permanently scarred and one who's not here anymore."
Pointing to the shotgun that Hall said he purchased weeks before to go hunting with his grandfather and uncle, Twigg said, "That's the game-changer."
But Brennan, the defense attorney, said that the game-changer was Hartridge himself, saying that if Hartridge hadn't felt it necessary to defend the honor of a woman he was no longer dating for an incident that Hall and his friends say never took place, Carroll would still be alive.
Brennan also pointed out that the other man who went with them to Hall's residence, Hartridge's cousin Robert Davis Jr. of Pittsburgh, wasn't shot because he didn't charge at Hall.
Alluding to the criteria that can lead to an acquittal on all counts, or a reduction from murder to voluntary manslaughter, Brennan said that Maryland law doesn't prohibit a person from arming himself in anticipation of a fight that he didn't start. Under what is called "the castle doctrine," Hall was not required by law to leave his apartment, his attorney said.
Scoffing at the remark Twigg made about taking a shotgun to a fistfight, Brennan said during his nearly one-hour closing, "He didn't bring a shotgun anywhere. ...The fight came to him."
Brennan also referred to something Hall told police when he was being interrogated.
"I never intended to shoot the gun at anyone," he wrote in his statement to police. "I was intimidated, honestly." According to Brennan, Hall also wrote in the statement that "I know I was morally wrong" but felt he had to defend himself.
In finishing his rebuttal, Twigg asked the jury, "Is there reasonable doubt here? No, this is murder."