E-mail
PrintCOLUMBIA — Jury selection will take place Tuesday morning in Boone County Court for the murder trial of a Columbia teen accused of shooting another teen during a 2007 car chase.
Kristopher Prince, now 19, is charged with second-degree murder, unlawful use of a weapon and armed criminal action in the April 2007 shooting death of 17-year-old Tedarrian Robinson. Prince pleaded not guilty to all charges Monday at a pre-trial motion hearing.
With a number of Prince supporters sitting in the back of the courtroom, attorneys for both sides argued several motions in front of Circuit Judge Kevin Crane, who will hear the murder case.
Defense attorney Kevin O'Brien, a public defender, asked to bar from the trial the results of a gun shot residue test performed on Prince after the shooting. Calling the circumstances of the test a "violation of the Fourth Amendment," O'Brien said the Columbia Police Department did not have a search warrant for the test and coerced Prince into taking it.
Crane denied the defense motion, allowing the results of the test to be heard in court during the trial later this week.
The trial will be centered on the events of the afternoon of April 18, 2007. The prosecution alleges that Prince fired a semi-automatic assault rifle at a car in which Robinson was a passenger. Prince was riding in a car driven by his cousin, Lorenzo Ladiner, now 22. Robinson was struck by a bullet in the back of the head and later died at University Hospital.
Earlier that day, Prince had been released from jail after serving six days for charges that included driving with a suspended license, court documents state.
Both Prince and Ladiner had numerous confrontations with the second car's driver, Larry McBride, according to court documents. The two men robbed McBride in 2006, and on the night before the shooting, Ladiner went to McBride's residence and shot at his car and house, the documents state.
Police found Prince at Ladiner's residence following the shooting, according to testimony at Monday's hearing from Columbia police officers Harlan Hatton and Chris Kelley. The gun used in the shooting was also found at Ladiner's residence, court documents state. Prince was arrested later that night, following the gun shot residue test, the officers said.
The trial is expected to last until Friday or Saturday because of the number of witnesses who will be called to testify, attorneys on both sides said.
Comments