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By

Eric Velasco — The Birmingham News

November 05, 2009, 4:28PM

Deliberations are expected to begin Friday in the capital murder trial of Pierre Smith, accused of killing two people in 2008  outside of a Southside night club.

Defendant Pierre Smith told jurors today he was on the ground, bleeding from two separate head wounds, when someone started shooting in the parking lot behind the now-closed  Banana Joe’s.

 Smith, 17, denied firing the shots that killed Willie Daniels and Jason Showers, both 20, and wounded Deandre Moore and Lashawn Tate.

Smith told jurors he went to the nightclub with his brother before midnight on July 4, 2008, and was inside when a man hit him over the head with an object that caused him to start bleeding. The teen said he took off a white t-shirt he was wearing and used it to try to stop the bleeding, then left the club looking for his brother so he could take Smith to the hospital.

In a parking lot outside, Smith met up with his brother and was showing him the head wound when he was struck by another object and several men started beating and stomping him, Smith testified.

 ”I was trying to stand up,” Smith told jurors. “As I got to my feet I heard gunshots and started running.”

  Smith told defense lawyer Jacqueline Morrette that he did not have a weapon that night and had been frisked before entering the club.

  Most of the people he was with that night, including several men who police stopped when they took Smith into custody, were wearing white t-shirts that, Smith testified.
The five eyewitnesses who testified for the prosecution, including two Birmingham police officers, said the lone gunman they saw shooting in the crowded parking lot was wearing white t-shirt. Smith testified he was wearing a white tank-top shirt, which jurors saw this morning.

Morrette and co-counsel Mitch Damsky contend police got the wrong man, and instead arrested an assault victim — Smith. Smith is on trial on two counts of capital murder and two counts of attempted murder.