Arkanjelo Kot's attorney used his opening statement in court Tuesday to portray the accused murderer as a hard-working man who fled the violence in his native Sudan as a child and who lived in fear in Grand Island after his cousin was killed.
Hall County Attorney Mark Young told the jury during his opening statement that a previous murder had nothing to do with Kot's actions in July 2010. Instead, he said, Kot shot Walid Omar-Aden out of anger, with deliberate and premeditated malice.
Kot, 35, of Grand Island is charged with first-degree murder and using a handgun to commit a felony for the July 14, 2010, death of Omar-Aden. The shooting occurred in the parking lot of the Pump & Pantry convenience store on West Second Street.
In his opening statement, Young said Kot arrived at the store at about 9 p.m. At about the same time, a van with three men inside pulled up near the pumps.
Kot and someone in the van exchanged words before Kot and one of the men went into the store. The two men didn't speak to each other inside. Outside the store, more words were exchanged, Young said.
"And that's where this should have ended," he said.
But Kot went to his vehicle to retrieve a handgun. He reached into the van and pulled the trigger before "strolling away," Young said.
During Tuesday afternoon's testimony, Young showed the video, which didn't include sound. The video showed the van pull up. It later showed the van pull ahead slightly before Kot approached and reached inside. The van then lurched and drove away. There were three or four customers inside the store at the time of the shooting, but as seen on the video, none of them reacted to what was going on outside.
Margaret Gartner was a clerk at the store on the night of the shooting. She testified she remembered Kot coming in to try to cash a lottery ticket. She described him as calm, polite and nice even when there was a problem with the ticket.
She said after Kot left the store she heard several loud "bams" or "bangs" but thought someone had hit the side of a vehicle with their fists. She didn't know about the shooting until police came to investigate the incident.
She also said the van drove away normally and didn't speed away from the pumps.
In his opening statement, Young said the van driver was new to Grand Island and didn't know how to get to the hospital. He returned to a home on Sycamore Street and help was called.
In the meantime, Kot drove to St. Mary's Cathedral, where he left his vehicle, changed his shirt and walked away. He eventually went to an apartment complex off South Locust Street, where he was later arrested, Young said.
Karibino Younic testified that he met Kot in Grand Island. The men are from the same tribe in South Sudan. He said Stephanie Riak brought Kot to his apartment at about 1 a.m. July 15. He said Kot told him there had been "an incident at a gas station." Kot told Younic men who had been involved in his cousin's murder threatened him as he was getting gas.
"He told me he shoot in the car but didn't know if he'd killed anyone," Younic said.
He said Kot told him he had a handgun in his backpack. He said he was worried about Kot being in his apartment with a gun, so he went to another room and called 911.
Kot's court-appointed attorney, Clarence Mock, used his opening statement to tell the jury about his client's childhood. In 1983, when Kot was 6 years old, a civil war broke out in his country and his village was attacked. As people were being shot, he and his brother ran away. They joined a large group that walked to a refugee camp in Ethiopia, Mock said.
The camp was a violent place. His brother left in 1987 to try to find their family and Kot, then age 10, was left alone. He never saw his brother again. Five years later, he moved to a different camp in Kenya. He eventually came to the U.S. through a refugee organization along with three other men. He arrived in Phoenix in July 2001, Mock said.
While in Arizona, Kot got a job and started to learn English. He moved to Grand Island, got a job and continued his education, Mock said.
"Then, on Aug. 27, 2009, something very bad happened," he said.
Kot and his cousin were at Kot's apartment when three men showed up. One of the men shot Kot and his cousin. His cousin died, and the men were tried and convicted in Hall County. While the cases were pending in court, Kot worried that friends of the men would come to harm him, so he legally purchased a gun, Mock said.
When he went to the Pump & Pantry on July 14, 2010, he wasn't looking for trouble. He was accosted by Omar-Aden and was worried for his safety, his lawyer said.
There was an argument and Kot retrieved his gun. Mock said Kot told him Omar-Aden threatened to get a gun and shoot him and that he was leaning over the seat at the time he was shot. Kot believed he was reaching for a gun and acted in self-defense, he said.
Mattias Okoye, the pathologist who did the autopsy, testified about Omar-Aden's wounds. He said the bullet entered Omar-Aden's body through his left hip area and exited the right abdomen at an upward angle. He said the bullet went through skin, skeletal muscles, tissue, bone, blood vessels, intestines, a major vein and the femoral artery.
There was "massive hemorrhaging" and blood filled Omar-Aden's abdominal cavity, Okoye said. Even if Omar-Aden had been shot at the hospital, "there's no way he would have made it," Okoye said.
In response to questions from Mock, Okoye said Omar-Aden would have been moving when the bullet struck him and couldn't have been stationary and leaning over. He did acknowledge he could have been bending at the waist as he moved, but he would have had to have been getting up in order to have such wounds. A demonstration by the two men of how Omar-Aden was shot got a little heated during the testimony.
During his opening statement, Mock said Kot left his vehicle and changed his clothes after the shooting because he was afraid the men would come looking for him. He walked to the apartment of some friends and told them what had happened.
"Arkanjelo Kot is not a perfect man," Mock said. "He did what he reasonably thought was necessary."
The trial will resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
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