LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Nearly four years after a Marine was killed and his wife wounded outside of a Lexington nightclub, the trial for two men accused in the crime began Wednesday morning.
Prosecutors started the day with a very emotional 911 call. That call came from Megan Price moments after she and her husband were shot in June 2014.
Prosecutors say while she was making that call Jonathan Price was bleeding to death next to her.
The Prices were leaving Austin City Saloon when, police say, two men brandished a gun and demanded cash before shooting the couple.
Police later took Quincinio Canada and Dawan Mulazim into custody in connection to the crime.
Megan Price survived and called 911. On the call, she can be heard frantically trying to get Jonathan Price to respond:
“I love you, Jonathan. I love you, Jonathan. I love you, Jonathan,” she says on the recording.
Prosecutors start off with a 911 call. The audio is Megan Price (Jonathan Price’s wife) crying after being shot outside of a bar. As he bled next to her, she screams “Jonathan, I love you.” pic.twitter.com/fvSM8EXg7x
— Karolina Buczek (@Karolina_Buczek) June 13, 2018
Megan Price will be a witness in the trial.
Meanwhile, the defense will try to prove that police got the wrong men.
Mulazim’s lawyer, Andrea Kendall, told the jury that police made an assumption because they were under pressure to solve this high-profile case during a summer filled with murders. She says DNA evidence will prove they have the wrong men.
Prosecutors said Wednesday, to fully understand what happened to the Price family, you have to understand what happened a few days before Jonathan Price’s death at the Quality Inn. Prosecutors said that the Quality Inn is where three people were robbed and a gun was taken. The gun, a Springfield XDS .45, was used to rob and shoot Megan and Jonathan Price, the prosecutors said.
One of the witnesses was Shane Hansford, who was one of the people robbed at the Quality Inn before the Prices were shot. Shane said in court that he was able to identify Mulazim as the man who robbed him through a photo. He said he gets a sick feeling when he looks at the photo of Mulazim.
The Commonwealth’s next witness was Jessica Hansford, she says she was the second victim at the Quality Inn robbery. Jessica said that the robbers told her to lay face down on the bed. She heard them rummage through the room and heard one of the robbers say, "Come on nephew." She said that her now-husband and the other person they were with were begging for the robbers not to hurt anyone. Prosecutors said that Canada and Mulazim are related and they showed the jury text messages where they call each other "nephew" and "unk".
The next witness was Mitchell Smith. He was the third victim in the Quality Inn robbery. He said that the gun stolen during the robbery was the weapon to murder Jonathan Price. Smith said that he heard Shane say, "just give them what they want, Mitch," when they were being robbed. Mitchell Smith said that he panicked and picked up a gun, but tried to hide it when they realized that the robbers had guns.
When the defense lawyer talked to Mitchell Smith, they showed him a photo of a Facebook post on his social media in which a news article about the hotel robbery is linked. The caption on the Facebook post reads, "if they didn’t all look alike, they’d be dead."
The defense asked Mitchell Smith if he meant "they" as in black people. He said, "yes".
Defense lawyer shows Smith a photo of his facebook post. It was a link to a news article about the hotel robbery and his caption said it was him and his bro. It further read “if they didn’t all look alike they’d be dead.”
Defense asks if he meant black people.
Smith says yes.
— Karolina Buczek (@Karolina_Buczek) June 13, 2018
