A former neighborhood friend of Jamal Wilson, Kwan Kearney, and Jeremy Risper testified for nearly three hours this afternoon against Kearney and Risper who are on trial for first-degree murder while armed.
The friend, 20-year-old Joshua Geter, agreed to testify under a plea bargain. Geter was arrested for first-degree burglary on Nov. 22, 2010, eight days after Wilson was killed in a shooting.
Geter said Kearney’s brother, Eric Kearney, and Joshua Risper were considered “hot” or “snitches” after they testified against another friend in 2009. The Kearneys and Risper stopped coming around the First Street and O Street neighborhood soon after, Geter said.
He said he was with Wilson and a group of their friends when Kearney and Risper came looking for Wilson late at night on Nov. 13, 2010. Most of the group walked up the street, Geter said, but he stayed behind.
Later, shots went off down the street and Geter rejoined the group. Soon after the shots, he said Kearney told him: “We just shot your man. It ain’t had to go like this.”
Both defense attorneys primarily questioned Geter about his plea deal with the government and about whether he had spoken about the shooting before he was arrested for burglary, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
Kearney’s attorney, Gene Johnson, asked Geter if he was being a “snitch” just like Risper and Eric Kearney. Geter, with a faint smile, said yes.
Geter said police never asked him about the murder and that the government approached him about the plea deal, not the other way around.
The trial will continue at 9:40 a.m. Monday with Judge Thomas Motley.
