Prosecutors say that Terry Jimenez knew exactly who shot and killed 18-year-old Lucki Pannell on Feb. 19, 2011. That night, Jimenez and his brother BJ recognized the distinctive eyes of Williams, despite Williams’ mask, when he ran up to Pannell’s porch and opened fire, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Rakoczy.
But Jimenez didn’t tell police who shot Pannell until more than two years later, after he entered a cooperation agreement and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the death of Robert Foster Jr.
Defense attorney Veronice Holt told jurors that Jimenez’s “evolving story” shows that he “doesn’t care about justice for Lucki.”
Police “begged” Jimenez, “in the name of Lucki’s mother,” to name the shooter, and Jimenez said he didn’t know, Holt said.
“For some of you, this may not make sense,” Rakoczy admitted, but for Jimenez, “you do not snitch,” not even if “your best friend was killed months before her graduation.”
Domonique Pannell, Lucki’s older sister, testified that on the evening of the shooting, she was hanging out on the porch of her mother’s house with Terry and BJ Jimenez and Lucki. After she went inside to prepare food for her children, she heard several “close” gunshots and saw the flash of lights through the windows.
When Pannell rushed out the door, she didn’t see Lucki at first, and thought that she might’ve gone to the “24 hour” store, Pannell testified. But then someone from a passing car said there was a body over the railing of the porch, Pannell said, and she saw her sister’s body.
Lucki Pannell died at a nearby hospital.
Hours later, Pannell said she received a call from Terry Jimenez, who was at the hospital sounding “shaky and scared.” Jimenez told her that “Hoover D” was the shooter, Pannell said.
In court, Pannell identified Hoover D as Williams.
But when Jimenez told her that Hoover D was the shooter, Pannell said that she “started cussing him out, because I didn’t believe him.”
“[Williams’] sister and my sister grew up together, from the sandbox, they was close,” Pannell explained, adding that Williams and Pannell went to school together at one point.
After she hung up on Terry Jimenez, Pannell received another call from BJ Jimenez, who was also in the hospital. BJ Jimenez reiterated to Pannell that Williams shot Lucki, Pannell told jurors.
“BJ said he had a ski mask on, but he recognized his eyes,” Pannell said.
Holt, the defense attorney, questioned why Pannell did not tell police that Williams was the shooter for over a year, instead telling police about a dispute between Jimenez and “Mike.”
“I didn’t believe it!” Pannell replied.
The trial is scheduled to resume Monday at 10:00 a.m.
