BANGOR, Maine — The defense attorney for a man accused of killing one man and wounding another told the judge deciding the case on Monday that prosecutors failed to prove his client pulled the trigger.
Defense attorney Jeffrey Silverstein of Bangor argued that the state had failed to prove that his client, Thomas “Ferg” Ferguson, 38 of Brooklyn, New York, fired the shots in November 2015 that killed Robert “Ricco” Mark Kennedy, 38, of Bangor and wounded Barry Jenkins, 42, who was visiting from Brooklyn, New York.
Neither Ferguson’s fingerprints nor any of his DNA was found on the murder weapon or at the upstairs apartment at 201 Center Street where the shooting occurred, Silverstein said.
“The state has fallen short of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Ferguson was the principal actor,” he said during closing arguments Monday afternoon at the Penobscot Judicial Center on the seventh day of Ferguson’s jury-waived trial. “To find Mr. Ferguson guilty, it must prove that he was not only present at the scene but that he either helped plan or participated in the crimes.”
Ferguson and Robert “Rocco” Hansley, 28, also of Brooklyn, New York, are both charged with murder and elevated aggravated assault in the case. But the two men, who each have pleaded not guilty, are being tried separately.
Ferguson’s trial began May 24 before Superior Court Justice William Anderson. A date for Hansley’s jury trial has not been set.
Ferguson did not take the stand in his defense and Hansley did not testify against him.
Assistant Attorney General Robert “Bud” Ellis argued in his closing argument on Monday that evidence from surveillance cameras at stores in Bangor and eyewitnesses proved that Ferguson and Hansley were together before and after the shootings. Ellis told Anderson that the evidence showed the two were acting together.
In addition, the murder weapon was given to Ferguson as payment for a drug debt, the prosecutor said.
“They were in this together — there’s ample evidence of that,” Ellis said. “Mr. Ferguson had a beef with Mr. Kennedy and it escalated from there. You also heard how Mr. Ferguson ordered Mr. Hansley around.”
Testimony was not specific about what that “beef” was about, Ellis said, but Ferguson and Hansley believed Kennedy “was a rat or a snitch.”
Silverstein argued that Hansley, rather than Kennedy, had a motive because Hansley and Kennedy both were involved with the woman who lived at the apartment where the shooting took place.
Jenkins testified on May 24 that he and Kennedy were visiting female friends at an upstairs apartment at 201 Center Street after doing some Black Friday shopping in the Bangor Mall area. They were getting ready to eat Thanksgiving leftovers when Ferguson and Hansley burst in and began shooting about 3:30 a.m. on Nov. 27, 2015, Jenkins testified.
“They shot at Ricco and then at me,” he said. “I felt like I was going to die. It happened so fast.”
Jenkins said that both men had guns but he was unsure which one fired the bullets that hit him. Under cross examination, Jenkins said he could not remember making previous statements to the police or the grand jury about the shooting that contradicted what he said on the stand. He also admitted to having several IDs with different birthdates.
He also testified that at one point he thought Hansley had shot him as Ferguson stood behind the shooter and “waved a gun around.”
Two women, one who was outside the apartment, and the other who was inside when the shootings occurred, both identified Ferguson as one of the men who burst into the apartment in the early morning hours the day after Thanksgiving. Both testified that they were terrified they also would be killed.
If convicted, each man faces 25 years to life in prison on the murder charges and up to 30 years in prison if convicted of elevated aggravated assault.
Ferguson also is charged with tampering with a victim, which carries a possible sentence of 10 years in prison.
The judge presiding over Ferguson’s trial has not said when he will announce a verdict.