Defense witnesses will continue testifying on Tuesday morning in the case in which Jamaul Herman in charged with first-degree murder in the July 4, 2010, slaying of Jerome Timmons.
The fiancee of Herman testified Friday that they went separately to an Independence Day party at The Palace bar on Glass Street. She said she "gave him sugar" and then drove off just before he was involved in a fight and then allegedly shot Timmons in the back as he tried to run across Glass Street.
She said she was at the Krystal on Highway 58 ordering him "a sackful" when his sister called to tell her he was at Memorial Hospital with a broken jaw.
Karen Goza, a Memorial nurse who attended to Herman, remembered that he was brought in by police officers handcuffed. She said the officers declined to take off the cuffs and she had to cut his shirt off.
She said the injury to Herman's jaw was so severe that a doctor came in at 3 a.m. to do emergency surgery.
Fernandos Hawkins, son of the Herman fiancee, said he could explain why a gun holster was found in the car Herman was driving. He said he had helped a friend move that day and he brought home some of the items - including the holster - when he had to leave suddenly.
Tobias Pruitt, who was in the news recently after firing at a police officer, was a reluctant defense witness. He first declined to come into court, saying he was planning to "take the fifth." Judge Rebecca Stern directed that he be brought in. She said he could not take the Fifth Amendment because he was not suspected of any crime in connection with the case.
Pruitt agreed that he had told defense attorney Mary Sullivan Moore in an earlier interview that he was leaving the bar in his car when a man ran up to him with a gun in his hand. He said that man had braids.
He said he did not see the shooting or hear any shots.