Students Give Emotional Testimony In Brandon McInerney Trial

One by one, reports The Ventura County Star, former E.O. Green School students shuffled into court Wednesday and answered questions in small voices about the days that led up to the moment when they heard shots fill the computer lab on Feb. 12, 2008. Brandon McInerney, 17, charged with murdering Larry King, 15, at the Oxnard school, showed emotion as one of his former classmates broke down during her testimony. He also faces a hate-crime charge because King was gay and dressed effeminately. Five students testified on the second day of his trial, which is being held in Chatsworth because of pre-trial publicity in Ventura County. The witnesses only identified themselves by their first names and last initials, because they still are only 17. Many were asked to speak up as they quietly retold what they saw that day. Before Mariah T. even answered her first question, she began to cry. She was the third student to testify and still visibly shaken by what she saw more than three years ago. "Are you OK?" Senior Deputy District Attorney Maeve Fox asked her, and she shook her head. Although other kids would call King derogatory names for being gay, Mariah said, she and him were friends who shared some classes, including the first-period English course where King was killed. "He liked my hair," the redhead said, speaking with long pauses and fighting back tears. "Everyone would talk about Larry and laugh." When Fox started to ask Mariah what she saw in the classroom that day, the girl could not continue, and the judge called a 20-minute recess. Mariah's mother mouthed "breathe" to her from the audience. McInerney's mother left the courtroom in tears. McInerney himself, who had appeared stone-faced most of Tuesday, also got emotional after her testimony. Bailiffs restocked boxes of facial tissue in the courtroom before Mariah resumed her testimony. Her mother sat by her side for support. Mariah said she heard a gunshot that day, looked over and "saw Brandon holding a gun." When Fox asked Mariah if she saw King then fall out of his chair, Mariah said she did not remember. Fox reminded her that when she gave a statement that day, she said as much. "I don't remember that much from that day," Mariah said. Many of the students who testified Wednesday said they didn't remember specifics, so attorneys reminded them of statements they previously made to investigators. "Have you tried to forget that day?" Fox asked Mariah, who nodded her head. McInerney's lawyer, Scott Wippert, thanked her and did not cross-examine her. Yuliana T. testified that she had been a student at E.O. Green for only three days when she was sitting beside McInerney on the morning of the shooting. She said in the minutes before the shooting, another student was talking to King."He was asking him if he has changed his name, and he said, 'Yes I did.' He said it was Leticia." A few minutes later, she saw McInerney shoot King, who was sitting about 8 to 10 feet away, in the back of the head, she testified. She said McInerney pulled up the hood of his sweatshirt and walked past her into the hallway. "Everyone was in shock," she said. During Wippert's cross-examination, she said she had seen King wear heels and makeup once. The last witness of the day was Jesus C., who was sitting diagonally from King when he was shot. Jesus said he saw King start to wear makeup and high heels in the weeks before he was killed, but he never saw King be sexually aggressive toward anyone. Although Jesus said he could not remember it, Fox reminded him of a statement he gave police that he heard King tell McInerney, "I love you." Fox said that in the statement, Jesus said he thought King was "just messing" with McInerney. Wippert will start his cross-examination of Jesus Thursday morning.