Maurice Berry said on the stand Friday he turned to shoot Maurice Garrett at an East Chicago gas station in March 2024, fearing the other man was reaching for a gun and would kill him.
Instead, he killed an innocent man and wounded Garrett in the arm and chest.
Berry, 22, of Hammond, is on trial in Lake Superior Court in Crown Point this week for killing bystander Javier “Campa” Olvera, 49, at an East Chicago gas station and wounding Garrett, who had dated Berry’s longtime on-and-off girlfriend Shaianne Cole.
Cole said on the stand Friday there were periods when she was involved with both men, something she kept secret from Garrett, her child’s father.
Berry dropped off his pregnant girlfriend Dashanay Williams at an East Chicago Strack and Van Til on March 30, 2024, and went a few blocks north to a BP gas station to get a drink inside, where he encountered Garrett, who lived close by at the time.
Prosecutors dismissed Berry’s testimony, saying it was too coincidental, arguing he was looking for a confrontation.
The jury is expected to begin deliberating Friday.
On Thursday, Williams and Aryn Stevens, who both had a child with Berry, were arrested in the hallway after they got into a fight in a nearby bathroom.
mcolias@post-trib.com
