Trial begins:
Opening statements begin in the Maricopa County Superior Court trial of pro basketball players Marcus and Markieff Morris. The twin brothers are each charged with two counts of aggravated assault stemming from a January 2015 beating of man in Phoenix.
The trial for identical twin NBA players Marcus and Markieff Morris centers on a few, frenetic moments in 2015 when a man was beaten outside a youth basketball tournament in Phoenix.
There’s no surveillance video, so the jury must sift through conflicting accounts and a mixed bag of motives to decide which scenario to believe: Did the brothers help plan and execute a blitz attack that left their former friend with a broken nose? Or did the victim falsely accuse the twins when instead two other friends committed the crime on their own?
Opening statements in the brothers’ trial began Monday morning in Maricopa County Superior Court, and laid out a
case that will hinge on the credibility of its witnesses.
The Morris brothers, along with former University of Southern California football safety Gerald Bowman, each are charged with two counts of aggravated assault.
The charges stem from the Jan. 24, 2015, beating of Erik Hood, a hometown friend who had a falling out with the twins.
The Morris brothers played for the Phoenix Suns at the time. The Boston Celtics acquired Marcus Morris from the Detroit Pistons this summer, and Markieff Morris now is a power forward for the Washington Wizards.
Two other defendants in the case, Julius Kane and Christopher Melendez, pleaded guilty last week to two counts of aggravated assault. They will be sentenced on Oct. 16.
There is no question whether all five defendants were present at the tournament. But while prosecutors say they all played a role in Hood’s beating, defense attorneys argue the brothers were headed to their car at the time Kane and Melendez attacked.
Hood told Phoenix police he was at the basketball tournament in central Phoenix when he spotted the Morris twins and the three other men.
Hood said he was approached by Kane as he was leaving the gym, and that a different person then struck him from behind and pushed him forward. He tried to run after getting back to his feet, but a group of men caught up to him, he said. Hood said he was punched and kicked in the head while he was held down.
Hood suffered a broken nose, as well as several cuts and abrasions, prosecutor Daniel Fisher told the jury Monday.
Fisher said the defendants “aided” each other during the assault, and jurors should consider the crime as a group effort as well as individual acts.
“This was an orchestrated attack by five men, including these three defendants,” Fisher said. “Each of them (served) a role.”
Defense attorneys offered a different take on the evening, as well as Hood’s initial relationship with the twins. All three defendants are represented by different lawyers but, by mid-afternoon, it appeared the three attorneys were each following the same account.
Marcus Morris’ attorney, Timothy Eckstein, was the first to speak. While Eckstein didn’t deny Hood was assaulted, he placed the blame solely on Kane and Melendez, the two defendants who pleaded guilty.
Eckstein said Hood, who had known the Morrises since growing up in north Philadelphia, was pointing the finger at his clients in hopes for a payout.
He alleged that Hood, who works as a talent scout, had only befriended the two to try to facilitate a recruitment to the NBA.
But their relationship soured, Eckstein said, and Hood saw this attack as his second shot at the twins.
The trial is expected to last 10 days.