ANTHONY JONES III - 9 Months and SHA'RAILYN WRIGHT - 3yo -(2009) Cincinnati OH

At first, Crystal Lewis thought her good friend Noelle Washington was
sleeping in a chair when she walked into Washington's Pendleton apartment just
after midnight June 1."The baby was in her arms and her head was like this," Lewis said, putting
her hand down to her chest and then to one side, "and her phone was in her right hand."
Washington held her 9-month-old son, Anthony Jones III, in her arms. Lewis'
3-year-old daughter, Sha'Railyn Wright, was on the floor on the other side of the room.
"I looked down to the baby and seen a bullet hole right here," Lewis said of
Anthony, touching her forehead and beginning to cry.
"That's when I said, 'My baby's dead. He killed my baby. My baby's dead.'"
Lewis, 20, is one of the prosecution's star witnesses in their case against
Mark Pickens, who is accused of three counts of murder and weapons charges.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the case being tried with a
jury before Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Steve Martin.
Lewis and Washington met at Newport Middle School in Kentucky and became good
friends. Washington was Sha'Railyn's godmother and watched her often for Lewis.
Sha'Railyn was at Washington's 13th Street apartment the night of
May 31 when Washington and Lewis sent each other a series of text messages.
"She said she was done with him. She wanted to move on," Lewis said of Washington.
"She told me, 'Mark raped me. I got bruises all over because he beat me,' " Lewis testified Thursday.
Another Washington text to Lewis about Pickens read: "He crazy as hell. He might kill me."
Prosecutors believe Pickens was mad at Washington, one of his
several girlfriends, because she told police he raped her. He got even, they
believe, by killing her and her infant. Sha'Railyn was killed, they believe,
because she could identify Pickens. All three were shot in the head at point-blank range.
Lewis said she grew suspicious of Pickens on May 31
because he called her from Washington's phone looking for her. She said she knew
Washington was planning to move to Tennessee to get away from Pickens and she was worried for her friend.
Later that night, Lewis received a text from Washington that noted Pickens was at her house minutes before the three people
were killed. "She said, 'Mark just walked through my kitchen,' " Lewis said of Washington's text message.
Earlier, three other witnesses gave testimony that was damning to Pickens.
A man testified that just before midnight on May 31, he walked past Washington's home and saw her outside the building
arguing with Pickens. He said he was so worried he asked her if she needed help.
Another witness, a woman who attended church nearby, said she saw
Pickens go into Washington's building, heard music turned way up and then heard
what she thought at the time were firecrackers. Moments later, she added, she
saw what prosecutors say was Pickens quickly ride his bicycle from the scene.
Another Pickens girlfriend, Jonda Palmer, also testified against
him - but not before she initially refused. She only relented after the judge
told her if she didn't testify he would cite her for contempt and throw her in jail.
After a brief break, she agreed to testify. She said she saw
Pickens with a gun May 31 hours before the three were killed, and heard him say
he was in a murderous rage. "He said, 'I feel like killing someone,' " Palmer testified.
When she saw Pickens that night, she hugged him and
felt a gun she then saw when she lifted up her shirt, she said. Palmer also said
Pickens asked her to get other girls and beat up Washington because Washington
told police Pickens raped her.
On Friday, Lewis will be questioned by Pickens' attorneys. Another prosecution witness, Montez Lee, also will be called
to testify that Pickens confessed the killings to him when both were at the Justice Center at the same time.
Lee is a convicted killer. The judge told the jurors - seven men, five women and four alternates - they could
get the case Tuesday or Wednesday and should prepare to be sequestered.