Dramatic testimony emerges in Jamiel Shaw II murder case

ESPINOZA TO STAND TRIAL FOR MURDER

Update (June 20):  LA Times, Defense lawyer seeks to link slain L.A. student to gang
Update (June 19):  Associated Press, Man, 19, to stand trial in LA athlete murder case
Update (June 19):  KNBC, Suspect in Jamiel Shaw slaying to stand trial
Update (June 19):  KABC, Judge orders Espinoza to stand trial for murder of Jamiel Shaw Jr.

(Los Angeles) More than three months after 17-year-old Jamiel Shaw II was gunned down in his Los Angeles neighbhorhood, dramatic testimony from the victim’s girlfriend and an eyewitness came during a preliminary hearing Wednesday.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

Two witnesses gave dramatic accounts Wednesday of how a high school football star was gunned down earlier this year near his Los Angeles home, opening a tense courtroom hearing packed with relatives of the victim and the alleged gunman.

Jamiel Shaw II, 17, was talking to his girlfriend on a cellphone when she overheard a voice ask him “Where are you from?” the teenage girl testified. There was no response and then the line went dead, she said.

Another witness testified that she watched a lone, hooded gunman approach Shaw on the street near his Arlington Heights home and fire a single shot. When Shaw fell, the gunman walked around him and delivered a final close-range shot to his head, she said.

“I saw the sparks from the gun,” said Tiffiney Johnson, a neighbor of Shaw who at one point broke down and cried on the witness stand. “I froze and was in total shock.”

-Story from Associated Press, L.A. woman says she drove alleged killer

KNBC-TV story

KABC-TV story

-Pedro Espinoza mug shot and booking sheet