The prosecutor in the murder case told jurors in his closing argument, “There is one gun in this case and one shooter and the shooter was Kimani Anderson.”
Kimani Anderson SPRINGFIELD - The reality was that Kimani Anderson was good friends with Tyrel Wheeler and “he didn’t shoot his friend,” Anderson’s defense lawyer told jurors Tuesday.
The prosecutor in the murder case told jurors in his closing argument, “There is one gun in this case and one shooter and the shooter was Kimani Anderson.”
The jury will continue deliberations Wednesday in the Hampden Superior Court murder case against Anderson, 30, of Springfield, who is charged with fatally shooting the 16-year-old Wheeler on July 7, 2011.
Anderson, who has previously been an FBI informant including cooperating in one high profile city drug case, was arrested more than five months after the Washington Street shooting.
Defense lawyer David Rountree said police ignored crucial investigatory steps that would have located the real shooter.
“Please find the right guy, and that’s not him,” Rountree said, pointing to Anderson.
Assistant District Attorney Eduardo Velazquez said city police Capt. Trent Duda and others were working diligently on the case, but it wasn’t until Duda got Anderson’s phone records that “it all came together” and Anderson was arrested.
Velazquez said the phone records show testimony of prosecution witness Andrea Hepburn was truthful.
Hepburn, who on the stand, described herself as having an “on again, off again,” relationship with Anderson, testified Anderson called her, sounding like he was running, and had her pick him up.
She said he got in the car with something wrapped up in his hand, and he smelled like “firecrackers.”
Velazquez said the phone records show the 4:11 p.m. call from Anderson to Hepburn, which was shortly after Wheeler was shot.
Hepburn said Anderson had been upset for hours because he could not find his wallet which he said had more than $1,500 in it.
Velazquez told jurors the case involves circumstantial evidence.
He said Anderson’s keys were in the front passenger seat of Wheeler’s cars, saying Anderson left them there after he shot Wheeler and “left in a hurry.”
Rountree said Anderson had been hanging out with Wheeler earlier in the day, and accidentally left his keys in the car.
Roundtree said a police dog brought to the shooting scene led officers to a nearby house. However, police did not bring the dog inside to see if it would uncover something they couldn’t find.
The defense lawyer said police should have directed their suspicion to those in the house. “They were there, they had the house surrounded,” Rountree said.
He said Hepburn has said different things to different people at different times, and only called with her information about the day of the shooting when Anderson was mad at her.
And instead of calling Springfield police she called Chicopee Police Officer Robert Lockett.
Rountree had called Lockett to the stand and he said Hepburn called him Aug. 14, but she never said she saw Anderson with a gun the day of the shooting.
Lockett said Hepburn told him she smelled firecrackers or gunpowder on Anderson that day.
Lockett said he was with Anderson in 2011 when Anderson purchased a car, and Lockett kept one key and gave Anderson the other.
He said he was with Anderson the day of the car purchase not as a Chicopee police office, but as a member of the Western Massachusetts Gang Task Force who was deputized as a federal officer.
Dr. Henry Nields, chief medical examiner for the state, had testified Tuesday morning the fatal shot to Wheeler entered his right cheek, went through his tongue and a molar and perforated the carotid artery.
He said there was also a shot to the chest, but with medical attention that would not have been life-threatening.
There were bullet wounds in a hand and arm, but Nields said he could not tell if they were separate shots or came from the arm or hand positioned so they caught the shots to the cheek and chest.