On the first day of his murder trial, Devonni Manuel Benton was directly pointed out as the man who shot and killed Spelman College sophomore Jasmine Lynn on Sept. 3.

The Clark Atlanta sophomore testified that he did see the shooter from the marginal distance with dreadlocks and not a Mohawk as other witnesses had described earlier, and the 20-year-old Marcus Strickland said he was in a drunken state when he tackled the shooter on a dark Mitchell Street and didn't actually see his face.

Constance Franklin, Lynn's mother, dressed in a white shawl, at times, rocked back and forth while listening to the testimony in the courtroom.

According to Patterson, Carter was the actual shooter. Not only did he shoot, he also confessed to several of his friends that he did it," Patterson said. "There's no better way of knowing who committed the crime than the shooter himself admitting that he did it. He confessed it to at least two people."

The prosecution also called five other witnesses before the lunch break. Jonathan Hanley, who is an Atlanta police officer and was the first on the crime scene, another was Jarvis Jones, who also got shot in the incident. None out of Jones, Lynn's friend, Tiffani Nixon, Mark Boddy, Keith Reid, two individuals involved in the early quarrel, were able to tell the jurors that they saw a gunman.

Jones told the jury all he remembers is, seeing the colors red and black from the direction of the shooting. Witnesses also told the Atlanta police that the shooter was wearing a hooded red sweatshirt and dark colored pants. Jones said when the gun was shot; he dove toward the ground and then went inside a dorm and pulled the bullet out of his right forearm. He was standing in front of the Ware Hall, across the street from where the shooting took place.

Reid told the jury he recalled seeing a slender, tall, dark man flashing a gun before the shooting, but did not remember what the bag containing the gun looked like. He also admitted in front of the jury that he lied to the police in the initial part of the investigation. He had told the Atlanta police that he was inside the dorm with Lynn, but he was in a car with people, who were involved in the squabble. He contended that he was not involved in the fight.

| More...