MARIETTA, Ga. (CN) - Attorneys for the Georgia teenager charged with murdering a baby in a stroller repeatedly stopped the trial Friday with motions for mistrial.
De'Marquise Elkins, 17, is charged with murdering 13-month-old Antonio Santiago and shooting and trying to rob his mother, Sherry West, on the first day of spring.
Elkins allegedly demanded West's purse as she pushed her baby in a stroller, returning from a post office. When she refused, state prosecutors say, he hit her in the head with a gun, shot her in the leg, then shot her baby between the eyes.
Elkins' mother, Karimah Elkins, is being tried with him, on charges of obstructing justice by hiding the gun and lying to police.
On Friday, with the jury out of the courtroom, Glynn County Public Defender Kevin Gough told Superior Court Judge Stephen Kelley that Elkins made a "spontaneous statement" while he was being booked for murder, which should be suppressed from the jury.
Prosecutor Jackie Johnson questioned Glynn County police Det. Roderic Nohilly on Thursday and Friday, in the first week of Elkins' trial. Nohilly told jurors that while Elkins was waiting to be booked for murder, he challenged whether police had evidence for it.
"Elkins was placed in a holding cell before I issued a warrant for his arrest," Nohilly testified. "I turned the warrant over to officer Cody Blades as we were standing in an interview room, and Blades served the warrant.
"As we were walking out of the station, in the hall that leads to the parking lot, Elkins looked over at us and he said, 'Ya'll ain't got no shit on me. Ya'll ain't got no gun; ya'll ain't got no prints; all ya'll got is a fucking acquittal,'" Nohilly testified.
He continued: "We didn't respond. Another investigator smiled and he [Elkins] said, 'Oh, ya'll got a gun?'"
Gough told the judge that comment should be suppressed as "prejudicial" against Elkins. Allowing it is cause for a mistrial, Gough said.
Judge Kelley denied the motion.
"Elkins made the statement while he was in transit," Kelley said. "These statements could be an admission by defendant, directly."
When the jury returned, Nohilly resumed his testimony concerning Dominique Lang's re-enactment video.
Lang, who will be tried separately, also is charged with murder. He testified on Thursday that Elkins counted down from five before shooting West. Lang said he ran away and heard, but did not see, the shot that killed the baby.
Johnson introduced a crime scene re-enactment video Friday, which shows Nohilly and Lang walking through the crime scene as Nohilly questions Lang.
In the audio portion of the video, Lang tells Nohilly that West's purse was on her shoulder, and that he heard the third shot, which struck the baby between the eyes, and started running.
Nohilly asked: "What was he [Elkins] wearing?"
Lang said Elkins wore a "black shirt, black cap and a pair of Levi's."
In previous trial testimony, and in interviews with police, Lang had said Elkins wore a red sweater.
Johnson continued her questioning of Nohilly by showing him and the jury a mug shot of Elkins, asking the officer: "Do you recognize the subject in the picture?"
"I recognize the clothing," Nohilly replied. "It's the description that Lang gave me of De'Marquise Elkins: the hat, the red sweater, the pants."