Witnesses

home in the area of Washington and 4th streets, but the first witness, Joshua Keefe, a cook who worked with Alkaramla at Verdile’s, testified he gave Alkaramla a ride home from work that night.

Keefe, however, said she asked him not to drop her off at her own apartment, but instead to leave her in South Troy, near Oquendo’s home at 170 3rd St. Keefe was followed to the stand by Anthony Melite, a neighbor in Oquendo’s apartment building who said he saw Oquendo

struggling later that night with a large suitcase that appeared to be very heavy. In fact, Melite testified, he saw Oquendo drop the suitcase down a flight of stairs.

Prosecutors — and Melite — believe the suitcase Melite saw was the same one in which Alkaramla’s body was found more than five weeks later. That black suitcase was rolled into the courtroom and entered into evidence during Melite’s testimony.

Another witness, Kyle Kern, who lives in the first floor apartment at 170 3rd St. with his girlfriend, recalled hearing a male and a female arguing upstairs. At the time of the incident, Kern said, the second-floor

apartment was vacant and Oquendo lived on the third floor with a girlfriend.

“I heard someone coming down the stairs loudly,” Kern recounted for jurors. “Just as they got to the second-floor steps, I heard a huge crash, I got up and saw a suitcase outside the door and saw Johnny standing there. I asked if everything was all right. … [Oquendo] stood right in front of the suitcase as he tried to pick up pieces of the bannister.”

During Kern’s testimony, defense attorney William Roberts twice moved for a mistrial, each time after Kern testified in front of the jury twice that Oquendo told him “he messed up and needed to get a lawyer.”

State Supreme Court Judge Andrew Ceresia, however, ruled after two extended recesses that a mistrial was not warranted.

During cross-examination, Roberts questioned Kern’s recall of the confrontation with Oquendo. Roberts pointed out that in Kern’s original statement to police, as well as his grand jury testimony, Kern said the suitcase he saw with Oquendo was purple.

Kern replied that after giving those statements, he kept thinking the color he testified to never seemed right and that he now believes it was darker.

The trial is expected to resume at 10 a.m. Thursday.