Suspect on trial in slaying of 2 Northwest High School students
ROCKVILLE, Md. - The first of four defendants charged with the vicious murders of two Northwest High School students is now on trial in Montgomery County.
Jose Canales-Yanez is accused of killing Artem Ziberov and Shadi Najjar last June in an attack police have described as payback, a set-up and overkill.
Ziberov and Najjar's parents sat in the front row of the courtroom Wednesday listening closely to every word from the defense, prosecution and the judge.
Canales-Yanez, who chose to have his trial heard by a judge, is alleged of conspiring with at least three others to kill Najjar in retaliation for a drug deal that went bad, according to prosecutors.
Investigators say Canales-Yanez plotted to take out the 17-year-old Northwest High School student after Najjar stole drugs and an iPad from the suspect's girlfriend and dragged her body 50 feet.
On the night of June 5, the eve of the Najjar and Ziberov's high school graduation, they agreed to meet another teenager to sell an extra ticket to the ceremony. However, police said it was nothing more than a set-up and an ambush.
Ziberov was apparently not a target.
"I hope that the truth actually is able to be pieced together because what I am learning through all this is that the defense's job is to try and eliminate critical pieces of evidence, and the prosecution is trying to include it," said William Tewelow, Ziberov's stepfather. "So when it is all done and said, I hope that there is enough to be able to make this conviction."
RELATED: Stepfather baffled by stepson's murder before graduation; says there were no warning signs
Tewelow also referred to a fourth defendant in this case who was arrested in December. Police said they found his DNA on some shell casings found at the scene.
"The evidence is that his DNA was on bullet casings," said Tewelow. "That has been brought out, and for me that is enough to know that he was involved."
In court on Wednesday, a witness who has been in witness protection for months took the stand and testified for hours. Her testimony revealed she was in a room in a trailer when she overheard plans being made the night before the killings. After initially telling police she knew nothing, she finally came forward and told police what she knew in October.
The defense attempted to poke holes in her story by getting her to admit she had lied to police repeatedly when first questioned.