MAHONING COUNTY MURDER TRIAL 3 teens testify about events before woman's shooting

The girls had gone to the house to spend the night.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Three teenage girls said they saw Tremaine Brown follow Tawanna Thomas out the door of their Stansbury Drive apartment after the couple had argued in the early hours of June 18.
One of the girls said Thursday that Brown had a gun in his hand, and all three said they heard a gunshot just moments after Brown and Thomas went outside. None of them saw who pulled the trigger, however.
Prosecutors say it was Brown who fired the gun, shooting Thomas once in the head as she sat in her car, which was parked along the street. The 25-year-old Brown is on trial for murder in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Brown admits he shot the 21-year-old woman, but insists it was an accident.
Pamela Jefferson, Tiara Johnson and Charity Brady are all 15-year-old girls who had gone to the Stansbury Drive apartment that night to spend the night with Thomas, who was their friend.
Testimony
Pamela testified she was in an upstairs bedroom when she heard Brown pounding on Thomas' bedroom door just down the hall. Tiara said she was downstairs at the time and didn't see or hear the pounding, but said Thomas came downstairs wearing her robe and carrying a blanket.
Charity, who also was downstairs, said Brown and Thomas had got into an argument because Brown wanted to have sex and Thomas did not.
Tiara and Charity said Thomas told them she was going outside to sleep in her car.
Charity, who was dating Thomas' brother at the time, said she saw Brown take a handgun from under a couch cushion earlier that night and put it in his pants pocket.
She said when Thomas walked out the door, Brown took the gun from his pocket, pointed it at Thomas and pulled the trigger but it didn't fire. Brown looked at the gun and put it back in his pocket, she said.
Charity said she watched Brown follow Thomas to the car and begin arguing with her, then she turned away. Moments later, she heard a gunshot and saw Brown running into the house.
All three girls said Brown put on tennis shoes, went back to the car, pulled Thomas out, dumped her on the street, put the blanket over her face and drove away in the car.
"I thought they were just playing," Tiara said, sobbing.
Checked on woman
The girls said when Brown drove away, they ran to the street to check on Thomas. Pamela lifted the blanket and they saw blood on her face and under her head. Charity went into the house and called 911.
During cross-examination by Brown's lawyer, Douglas B. Taylor, the girls said they had seen Brown and Taylor get into arguments in the past, with the altercations sometimes becoming physical.
None of them said they'd ever seen Thomas carry a gun, but Thomas' mother, Sabrina Fisher of Youngstown, said Thomas carried a handgun in her purse for protection.
She read out loud a letter Brown wrote to her some two weeks after the shooting, in which he apologized to the family and repeatedly said the shooting was an accident.
Fisher said Thomas had a bad temper and had been diagnosed with post-partum depression after the birth of her second child.
The trial continued today in the courtroom of Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
bjackson@vindy.com