Robert Hansley was in Bangor dealing drugs but did not unleash a barrage of bullets about 3:30 a.m. two years ago in a Center Street apartment shooting that left one man dead and another seriously wounded, his defense attorney told a jury Wednesday.
Robert Hansley, 29, of Brooklyn, New York, also known as “Rocco” and “Ben,” is charged with murder and elevated aggravated assault in connection with the death of Robert “Ricco” Mark Kennedy, 38, of Bangor and the wounding of Barry Jenkins, 43, also of Brooklyn, on Nov. 27, 2015.
Hansley’s co-defendant, Thomas “Ferg” Ferguson, 39, of Brooklyn, New York, was found guilty of the same charges in June following a jury-waived trial. He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 28.
The jury in Hansley’s trial will not be told of Ferguson’s conviction.
Defense attorney Hunter Tzovarras of Bangor told jurors in his opening statement Wednesday that they would hear “guilt by association” from the prosecution. Tzovarras said Ferguson, who was given the murder weapon to pay off a drug debt, pulled the trigger, not Hansley.
“The prosecution wants you to find him guilty because of who he was with,” Tzovarras said. “Jenkins told police at the scene that Thomas Ferguson shot him.”
Ferguson allegedly was angry with Kennedy, the man who died, because Kennedy had bested him in an impromptu wrestling match in front of his friends, Tzovarras told the jury. Ferguson stopped selling drugs with Kennedy and partnered with Hansley instead, he said.
Assistant Attorney General Leane Zainea told the jury in her opening statement that under Maine law, it does not matter who fired the gun.
The murder weapon was found wrapped in aluminum foil and newspaper in the closet of a Hammond Street apartment where Ferguson’s girlfriend lived, according to testimony at his trial.
“The law makes no distinction between the person who pulled the trigger and the person who was the accomplice,” Zainea said. “Your common sense and reason will tell you that only one person fired the gun. Mr. Hansley’s fingerprints are on the packing material the gun was wrapped in.”
The evidence presented by the prosecution at Hansley’s trial is expected to be the same as that presented at Ferguson’s. Hansley did not testify
against Ferguson and Ferguson is not expected to testify against Hansley.
Jurors visited 201 Center Street early Wednesday afternoon to view the exterior but did not go inside.
Tera Choquette, 31, of Scarborough told jurors that she was outside smoking a cigarette in the early morning hours of Nov. 27, 2015, when first Hansley and a few seconds later Ferguson walked past her and up the stairs into the apartment where Kennedy and Jenkins were. Choquette testified Wednesday that she heard the men arguing and, then heard gunshots.
“I ran to the car parked next door,” she said. “I knew my friends were inside. I didn’t know if they would shoot me too. I tried to hide under the trunk end of the car but I didn’t fit. I just stayed there until I hear Barry call my name.”
Choquette said she found Jenkins on the front step.
“He had bullet wounds everywhere — his neck, his foot, his arm, his chest, his stomach,” she told the jury. “He asked me to get his cell phone so he could call his baby’s mama.”
Choquette, who was granted immunity, said that although she was using heroin at the time of the shooting, she did not know whether Kennedy and Jenkins were selling drugs. She said that shortly after the shooting she “got sober” and has not used drugs since.
Jenkins is scheduled to the stand Thursday.
He testified in May that he and Kennedy were visiting female friends after some Black Friday shopping in the Bangor Mall area. Ferguson and Hansley allegedly burst in and began shooting at about 3:30 a.m. as the group was preparing to eat Thanksgiving leftovers.
While Hansley’s attorney claims that Jenkins told police that Ferguson was the shooter, Jenkins said in May that he did not know which man pulled the trigger.
“They shot at [Kennedy] and then at me,” he testified in May. “I felt like I was going to die. It happened so fast.”
Hansley and Ferguson are being tried separately after Superior Court Justice William Anderson decided he did not want to be the first Maine judge to conduct a jury-waived trial and a jury trial at the same time.
The jury of eight women and six men, including two alternates, was selected over more than two days from a pool of nearly 400 Penobscot County residents.
Both men face 25 years to life in prison on the murder charges and up to 30 years in prison on the elevated aggravated assault charges.
Follow the Bangor Daily News on Facebook for the latest Maine news.