Ex-girlfriend testifies in Toledoan’s trial

9/12/2017

Lucas County Courthouse

THE BLADE
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Without saying a word, Kenneth Waters, Jr., pulled out a gun and shot Raishaun Williams once in the neck, Waters' former girlfriend told a jury Tuesday in Lucas County Common Pleas Court.

“We were talking, getting each other's numbers, flirting,” Tyler Evans, 18, testified about her May 12 encounter with Mr. Williams in the kitchen of a home at 932 Post St.

She and some friends, including Waters, had gone to the house for a cookout, and she said Waters was still sitting in the backseat of her car when Mr. Williams asked her to come inside and talk to him.

“Was Kenneth in the kitchen with you at this point?” Jennifer Liptack-Wilson, an assistant county prosecutor, asked Miss Evans.

“No,” she replied.

“What happened while the two of you were getting to know each other?” Ms. Liptack-Wilson asked.

“Kenneth walked in the back door,” Miss Evans said. “He didn't say nothing. We both looked at him, and he reached his hand up and shot him.”

Waters, 29, of Rockingham Street is on trial for alternate counts of murder in the May 12 shooting death of Mr. Williams, 34, of Toledo.

Ms. Liptack-Wilson told the jury in her opening statement that Toledo police found Mr. Williams on the front porch of the Post Street house “suffering from a suspected gunshot wound to the neck that very sadly was bleeding at an unstoppable pace.” The victim could not say who shot him, she said, but others told police it was Waters.

Toledo Police Officer David Marsh testified that he was with the victim's father, Homer Williams, while paramedics were tending to the victim. Officer Marsh said Homer Williams told him Kenneth Waters' son, who he believed also was named Kenneth, had fired the fatal shot.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Merle Dech, Miss Evans told the jury she initially lied to police about what happened, but said she was afraid she'd be in trouble for being with Waters that night because she had a protection order against him.

She also admitted that she had been drinking vodka and smoking marijuana on the day Mr. Williams was killed.

Ms. Liptack-Wilson asked her whether she had any problem seeing who shot Mr. Williams.

“No,” she replied.

“Who was it?” Ms. Liptack-Wilson asked her.

“Kenneth,” Miss Evans said.

Contact Jennifer Feehan at jfeehan@theblade.com or 419-213-2134.