During the trial this week, several hours of Williams’ statement was played for the jury.
TRENTON - Keith Williams, a city man charged with conspiring on the Myspace networking site to murder an alleged gang turncoat, will not take the stand to testify in his own defense, his attorney said yesterday.
Williams, who previously gave a long statement to police, was the first of four men charged with plotting Arrel Bell’s murder to go to trial. During the trial this week, several hours of Williams’ statement was played for the jury.
“They have already heard him for four hours,” his attorney Mark Fury said. “He is not going to testify.”
Williams and the co-defendants -- Karim Sampson, Brandon Edwards and John Murphy -- were charged after investigators uncovered messages the men sent to each other on Myspace.
Bell was found dead, with two gunshots to the back of the head, in Stacy Park on May 1, 2008. Prosecutors allege that the men, who were a part of a gang with Bell, plotted to kill him because he had “snitched” on Sampson to police when they were investigating a robbery the two men committed in 2007.
The prosecutors concluded their testimony yesterday with State Police Acting Lt. Ronald Hampton, who translated gang and street terms used in the Myspace messages. Hampton explained to the jury that, in the context of the messages, words like “poke” would mean “to shoot, stab or kill” or that “wifey” means “gun.”
The trial is set to resume Monday morning, when defense attorneys will make their closing statements to the jury.
Williams is facing 20 years in state prison if found guilty.
Contact Jenna Pizzi at jpizzi@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5717.
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