Emotional Testimony Heard In Death Penalty Trial

In the first day of a death penalty trial in federal court in Brooklyn, a mother described her teenage son's dying moment.

"I leaned down and he was calling my name," the woman, Doreen Washington said of her 15-year old son, Jamel. "I took his hand and he said, 'mommy' and he closed his eyes and took his last breath."

The shooting murder of Jamel Washington in 2000 is one of five killings and numerous attempted murders at issue in the trial of three men, one of who faces the prospect of capital punishment if convicted. The trial opened yesterday before an anonymous jury.

The violence, prosecutors say, was the product of gang rivalries in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. The three defendants were members of the Folk Nation gang, which was allied to the Crips gang.

Not all of the victims belonged to a rival gang. One woman, Tabitha Buckman, 34, was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was gunned down October 14, 2001, during a smoke break outside the eatery she managed.

James McTier, 25, who faces the death penalty, is accused of a role in Buckman's death as well as the deaths of two rival gang members.

On the witness stand, Ms. Washington said she knew little of the gang dispute for which her son died. She had heard that Jamel "was involved" in the ABG gang. Ms. Washington said her son once told her "someone was trying to kill him."