‘Walk with me real quick’
Witness: Defendant told UNM athletes to follow him before turning and firing fatal shot
The man who fatally shot Jackson Weller in 2019 asked two University of New Mexico athletes to follow him moments before he quickly turned and fired, a witness to the shooting testified Thursday.
Nico Garza, a UNM baseball player and friend of Weller’s, testified Thursday on the second day of the trial of Darian Bashir, who is charged with first-degree murder in Weller’s death.
Garza told jurors the gunman approached him and Weller with a question: “Hey, were you the ones fighting those guys over there?”
Weller responded: “Yeah, those guys jumped me over there,” Garza said.
The gunman then turned and pointed behind him and said, “Walk with me real quick,” he testified. Garza described the gunman’s voice and demeanor as calm and reassuring.
Garza and Weller complied. They followed the gunman about 10 steps before he wheeled around and shot Weller once in the chest, Garza said.
Prosecutors allege that Bashir was the gunman who fatally shot Weller outside a Nob Hill nightclub on May 4, 2019.
However, Garza did not identify Bashir as the gunman on Thursday. Prosecutors told jurors during opening statements on Wednesday that Garza had only seen Bashir for a few seconds the night of the killing and was unable to identify him.
Deputy District Attorney John Duran asked Garza why he and Weller had followed the gunman.
“We followed because he sounded almost helpful and inviting,” Garza replied.
Bashir’s attorney made the argument in opening statements on Wednesday that the athletes had provoked Bashir in the moments before the shooting.
Defense attorney Robert Aragon told jurors that Bashir, who is African American, fired the fatal shot because he feared the athletes following him, and was “outraged” by derogatory slurs made by the athletes.
Garza’s testimony contradicted Aragon’s narrative in two key ways.
Garza testified that the gunman had invited the athletes to follow him. He also said that neither he nor Weller made any racist or insulting comments to the gunman. Garza and a second UNM student testified that the evening started when a group of friends went out on the town to have fun.
They went to the Nob Hill Bar and Grill and drank and danced until closing time at 2 a.m. Witnesses testified that bouncers ejected the group for throwing limes.
Weller, Garza and a female student then walked west on Central Avenue to Last Call, an outdoor burrito stand.
Sydney Imus-Hanlon, a friend of the two men, said the evening had been lighthearted up to that point.
“I was wearing heels and my feet hurt from walking around and stuff, so Jackson gave me a piggyback ride,” ImusHanlon told jurors. She began crying as she recalled the moment.
Tensions began when the group reached the walk-up burrito stand and a young woman “shoulder-checked” Weller.
“It was aggressive,” Garza said. “It was a hard shoulder check.” Garza said he began ribbing his friend about the shoulder check. “We were just laughing about it.”
Then two young men standing behind them butted into the conversation and began taunting Weller, he said. Soon they were joined by an older man who joined in the taunts. The conflict escalated when Weller shoved one of the men, who responded by punching Weller, Garza testified. A fistfight ensued, he said.
Garza said he pulled Weller away and the two began walking on Richmond NE just minutes before Weller was fatally shot. Jurors also heard testimony from former UNM football player Ray Boyce, who was standing outside Last Call at the time of the shooting.
Boyce said he heard a gunshot and, moments later, saw an African American man carrying a pistol in his pocket. The man got in a car and fled, he said.
But when a prosecutor asked Boyce if he could identify the man in the courtroom, Boyce said he could not.
Boyce was shown a photo lineup in which, prosecutors said, Boyce had identified Bashir as the man carrying the gun.
But Boyce told jurors that the photo lineup included only one African American man among a group of Hispanic men and declined to verify that he had circled Bashir’s photo.