Closing Arguments Begin in Murder Trial of Former Berkeley High Student

An Alameda County prosecutor told jurors today that defendant Bahsson Carl Smith thought he was getting away with murder in the fatal shooting of popular former Berkeley High School student Keith Stephens six years ago but that evidence eventually connected him to the crime.

In her closing argument in Smith's trial in Oakland, Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Stacie Pettigrew said Smith told friends in phone calls from jail that were recorded by authorities that "they ain't got enough evidence" against him and "I ain't worried."

Pettigrew said Smith, 31, presented himself to Berkeley police as a witness to Stephens' shooting in the 1200 block of Carrison Street in southwest Berkeley on Feb. 19, 2006, and shifted the blame to a friend who had been in a dispute with Stephens shortly before he was killed.

But she said an eyewitness identified Smith as the person who killed Stephens, and that when Smith was interviewed by police, he disclosed details of the crime that only the killer would know.

Stephens, 24, was a former Berkeley High School student and junior college football player. He was described as very popular and was one of three Berkeley High graduates in the class of 2000 who were profiled in the book "Class Dismissed" by Oakland author Meredith Maran.

When Smith's trial began last month, Pettigrew said Stephens "had a thing for cars" and that was a factor that led to the series of events that culminated in his shooting death. Pettigrew said Stephens had sold an old Buick to his friend Kamassa Palmer but he was mad at Palmer for not paying him the full amount he was owed, so on the evening of Feb. 19, 2006, he went looking for Palmer because "he felt taken advantage of" and "was incredibly upset."

Pettigrew said Stephens went to the home of Palmer's girlfriend, Nora Miranda. When she wouldn't tell him where Palmer was he broke a window in her car.

"That act of vandalism ultimately cost him his life," she said.

Smith was a friend of Miranda and he tracked down Stephens a short time later when Stephens went to an acquaintance's home in the 1200 block of Carrison Street. Pettigrew alleged that when Stephens opened the door of the home, Smith said, "What's up, cuz," shot Stephens in the chest at short range, then got in a car and drove away.

She said that when Berkeley police arrested Smith four days after the fatal shooting on suspicion of vandalism and domestic violence against his girlfriend, he asked to speak to homicide detectives and implicated Palmer in Stephens' death.

Smith's attorney, Darryl Stallworth, will give his closing argument later today. In his opening statement, Stallworth told jurors that he would ask them to find Smith not guilty because he doesn't think the prosecution has enough reliable evidence to prove its case against him.

The prosecution's main eyewitness "lacks credibility and trustworthiness" because he has felony convictions for drug, fraud and theft offenses and was under the influence of drugs, alcohol and medication on the night that Stephens was killed, Stallworth said. Evidence in the case indicates that Palmer, not Smith, killed Stephens, he added.

-- Bay City News Service