It took a matter of seconds for Noel Evan Caldellis to turn a brawl outside a party in a Brier cul-de-sac into a shooting, a prosecutor told a Snohomish County Superior Court jury on Wednesday.
Caldellis, 19, fired twice into the air before lowering a .357-caliber pistol and “firing twice into the crowd and twice into Jay Clements, and he killed him,” deputy prosecutor Matt Hunter said.
Caldellis was there and he might have fired a pistol, but he didn’t shoot and kill Clements, 21, Seattle defense lawyer Raymond McFarland told the same jury.
“The evidence will show you my client did not cause the death of Jay Clements,” McFarland said.
The different versions were aired in the opening statements in Caldellis’ first-degree murder trial.
He is accused of “manifesting extreme indifference to human life” in the first-degree murder charge. Prosecutors also have filed second-degree murder, alleging Clements died while Caldellis was “attempting to commit the crime of riot.”
Caldellis, of Seattle, also is charged with two counts of first-degree assault for allegedly shooting in the direction of two other people at the party.
Between 50 and 60 young people had been at the Labor Day weekend party on Sept. 3, 2006. One man who attended telephoned a group that Caldellis had been associated with to arrange a fight, Hunter said.
It was supposed to be two people fighting, “but everyone knew it was a group fight,” Hunter said.
Numerous young men arrived crammed into three cars. They parked at the cul-de-sac entrance.
“When they got out of their cars they were ready for a fight,” Hunter said.
Clements, a senior at University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, grew up in south Everett and had attended Mukilteo schools. He and others went outside the house to help break up several fights that erupted, Hunter said.
Caldellis got a .357-caliber pistol from the trunk of this car. Somebody yelled out, “Where’s the burner?”
That was a reference to the gun, Hunter said.
Caldellis fired twice in the air before leveling the gun and shooting twice more, Hunter said.
McFarland said the prosecutor doesn’t have the evidence to prove that it was Caldellis who fired the fatal shot. Clements was struck in the groin and the chest.
“There is no evidence my client fired those shots,” McFarland said.
Some witness will say that there was somebody else there with a gun, McFarland said.
Although Hunter contended that Caldellis confessed to the killing, McFarland asked jurors to pay careful attention to a video of a police interview.
“My client never admitted killing Jay Clements,” McFarland said.
In addition he criticized the police for jumping to conclusions and not pursuing a number of leads that he said could have led to the real killer. The investigation was filled with “inattention to detail and a lack of following up,” McFarland said.
The trial in front of Superior Court Judge Thomas Wynne may extend past Thanksgiving. Several potential jurors were excused because of the length of the trial.
The prosecutor is expected to call up to 60 witnesses, and the defense is expected to have dozens as well.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or jhaley@heraldnet.com.
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