OAKLAND — The jury trial against a Berkeley man accused of killing three men more than a decade ago began this week with opening remarks and testimony signaling that it could be a complicated trial filled with reluctant or defiant witnesses.
In her opening remarks, prosecutor Natasha Jontulovich told jurors that some witnesses will be testifying unwillingly and others have been compelled by subpoenas to do so. Another woman who testified Monday came forward with information nine years after the shooting. She testified that less less than a minute after she heard gunshots as she waited for a relative getting a haircut, she said, she saw a gold car with two Black men inside drive parallel past her before a second dark colored Dodge Charger driven by an old acquaintance, Greg Fite, who she referred to as “George Fife,” crossed in front of her at a stop sign soon after.
Like the other two female witnesses Monday, she said she did not want to testify, saying she feared retaliation. He admitted to knowing Carroll and knowing of Ngo while on the stand Wednesday, but claimed to have no recollection of the interview, claimed detectives tried to coerce answers out of him and called himself a “convict” and a “habitual liar.”
Tuesday’s final witness, an longtime acquaintance of Carroll’s, was arrested after failing to respond to a subpoena requiring him to testify and walked back the story he told detectives about Carroll’s involvement in Lewis and Henderson’s killings. He said he was coerced to lie.