http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060329/News01/6
Article published Mar 29, 2006
Witnesses describe
shooting
Shots
heard as bystander fatally wounded, according to trial testimony.
MARTI GOODLAD HELINE
Tribune Staff Writer
SOUTH BEND -- April 17 was a warm, sunny
Sunday afternoon with many people
on their porches or in yards enjoying the
day.
Suddenly, the booming of a loud
car stereo broke through the children's
sounds, pulling some people's
attention to a large black sport utility
vehicle driving slowly in the
1200 block of North Huey Street.
Quanshonna
Winbush was on her mother's front porch at 1233 N.
Huey St.
watching two young children.
Winbush
testified Tuesday in St. Joseph Superior Court that she saw the SUV
stop, heard someone shout something and
saw a gun extended from the front
passenger window.
"I heard shots," said Winbush, who ran inside after grabbing the youngster
on the porch with her.Claudia
Jones, Winbush's mother, was inside the house.
"I heard pops that sounded like
fireworks and then Quanshonna yelling. I saw
my cousin lying face down in my
yard," testified Jones, tearing up at the
memory.
Her cousin, Keith Hill, 34, of South
Bend, was eating lunch at her house,
Jones said, and had gone to his car to
get her a bottle of orange juice.
"He never made it back inside,"
Winbush testified.
The shooting scene was described as the
prosecution began to present its
case in the trial of Dwight Howell,
charged with murdering Hill, an innocent
bystander.Howell
also is charged with conspiracy to commit murder and two
counts of attempted murder.
Adrian Harris, 29, a cousin of Jones by
marriage who also was a lunch guest,
testified he was talking to Hill as he
went to his car.
Harris recalled he saw the SUV approach,
saw an arm with a gun and took off
running about the time he heard shots. He
ran between two houses. It was
after the SUV drove off that he saw Hill
on the ground, he testified.
Harris said he went to check Hill, who
was able to talk at first. Harris
then checked on Damine
Bew, who was walking with a limp.
Winbush
testified that she saw Bew, who was outside in the
yard next door,
pull out a gun and fire shots.Bew and Edward Coleman are the two men Howell
is accused of wounding when he and four
other men drove down Huey Street on
April 17 to seek retaliation for shots
fired earlier at one of the men,
according to the prosecution.
At the same time, Carrie Bechtel, 19, was
driving her friend Christina
Rutledge, 21, to her home on Huey. As
they approached the SUV from the
opposite direction in Bechtel's car, the
women saw a gun in the window,
heard shots and ducked after Bechtel
pulled over.
In his opening statement, defense
attorney Timothy McLaughlin told the jury
the evidence they hear may be unreliable.
McLaughlin especially tried to discredit
the upcoming testimony of two
co-defendants who have pleaded guilty to
one charge under an agreement that
calls for the state to dismiss other
charges. Those witnesses are expected
today.
Staff writer Marti Goodlad
Heline: mheline@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6327