Defense Attorney Mary Ann Green told a Criminal Court jury Wednesday that
Dyron Yokley shot a drug dealer because he felt threatened at the end of a chase through a Red Bank park.
Prosecutor Matthew Rogers said the 27-year-old Yokley, who earlier spent eight years in prison for armed robbery, became angry that he had been hit in the head by Tyrus Steele after they met on a Sunday morning for a drug exchange.
He said the victim was shot in the chest and in the head after Yokley ran him down.
Yokley is standing trial for murder in the courtroom of Judge Barry Steelman.
Prosecutor Rogers said Yokley had told police that during the drug exchange Steele began acting paranoid. He said Yokley believed he was about to be robbed.
He said after Steele struck Yokley in the head that a chase ensued down a wooded hillside, then into a clearing and up a hill, where a family had driven to walk their dog.
He said Henry McCurdy looked up and saw Steele "running for his life." He then spotted a man behind him wielding a 45-caliber handgun.
The prosecutor said when Mr. McCurdy heard a gunshot he yelled for his family to get in the van and speed away.
He said police at first did not locate the body, then Mr. McCurdy showed them where it could be found.
Yokley, whose vehicle had run out of gas, was caught at the park. Ms. Green said he also had locked his keys in the car.
She said Yokley became angry after being hit, and determined, "I'm going to show him." But she said he had not intended to kill him.
She said Steele had mentioned working with an "associate" and that when Yokley saw the man by the car at the top of the hill he had assumed that was the associate.
She said he "felt trapped" and began firing.
Yokley tossed the gun soon after the shooting, but he later told police where they could find it.
It was Red Bank's first murder since 2001.
The jury in the case will be taken to the park to view the rugged section where the slaying occurred.