MARIETTA, Ga. (CN) - Jury members winced Tuesday on viewing autopsy photos of the baby De'Marquise Elkins is accused of shooting in the face because its mother wouldn't give the teenager money.
Thirteen-month old Antonio Santiago died of a shot to the head in March as his mom pushed him in a stroller. Elkins, 17, is charged with murdering the baby with a .22-caliber handgun.
Tuesday was the first day of trial testimony, after a day of jury selection in which Elkins' attorney objected that there was not a single black man among the 48 members of the jury pool.
The autopsy photos showed an entry wound between the baby's eyes.
They were entered into evidence by Glynn County District Attorney Jackie Johnson, who examined the first-responder paramedic and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Regional Medical Examiner Dr. James Downs, a forensic pathologist.
Both witnesses confirmed under direct and cross examination that baby Antonio died instantly from the gunshot wound.
In opening arguments, Johnson laid out the sequence of events.
She told jurors that Sherry West was walking home from a post office not far from her home, pushing her baby in a stroller, when she was approached by two black males.
"One had a handgun, the oldest one, and he pointed at her and asked her for money," Johnson said.
"Sherry West did not immediately hand over her purse and resisted. The second young man was there, though West said he appeared to be hiding behind the young man with the gun. The young man with the gun took that gun and aimed it at Antonio Santiago, shooting him right between the eyes."
Johnson said West identified her assailants as De'Marquise Elkins and Dominique Lang, and that Lang corroborated that Elkins was the shooter.
Johnson said Elkins hid the murder weapon, a .22 caliber pistol, at the home of Danielle and Ronald Williams, before the police arrived to question him.
Elkins' mother Karimah became part of the cover-up, Johnson said, when she got the gun, flagged down a vehicle, went to a salt marsh and threw the gun into the marsh.
Karimah Elkins is being tried with her son, on charges of obstructing justice and making false statements to police.
"When police got information that it had been thrown in the pond, they went there and started diving for the gun," Johnson said. "A few days after the baby was shot, the diver was able to retrieve a .22-caliber pistol. A bullet fragment was taken out of the baby and Sherry West, and it was consistent with being fired from a .22-caliber pistol."
West was wounded in the shooting.
Johnson told the jury that Brunswick Police Det. Roy Blackstock attributed the robbery and shooting of Wilfredo Calix-Flores, 10 days before the robbery of West and the murder of her baby, to De'Marquise Elkins.
In his opening argument, defense attorney Jonathan Lockwood disputed the validity of Blackstock's investigation.
"You are going to hear evidence that Blackstock did no real investigation on the case," Lockwood said.
"Blackstock creates a theory about the case based on the baby shooting. Blackstock told Flores and the other witness what they saw and what they heard."
Lockwood also attacked the police interrogation of Dominique Lang, claiming the police had "tunnel vision," focused solely on Elkins as the shooter.