Driver saw man shoot over her car at victim
Witnesses describe suspect Jerrico Lindsey chasing and shooting his victim in Kaneohe
Two women driving separate vehicles watched an execution-style slaying unfold through their windshields, testifying yesterday they saw alleged killer Jerrico Lindsey chase down and shoot his victim on Kaneohe Bay Drive.
"I saw the white guy on the ground with his hands up and the black man over him shooting him," Jacqueline Nault said during a preliminary hearing in District Court.
Judge Leslie Hayashi ordered a Circuit Court trial for Lindsey and William Lee Freeman, accused in the May 14 kidnapping and shooting death of Benjamin Grajeda.
An Oahu woman watched a horrific shooting unfold through the windows of her minivan, testifying yesterday that alleged killer Jerrico Lindsey fired shots in quick succession at his victim over the top of her vehicle.
Jacqueline Nault then sped off, turning at the first street she reached, and looked back.
"I saw the white guy on the ground with his hands up and the black man over him shooting him," she said.
Nault identified Lindsey as the shooter during a preliminary hearing before Judge Leslie Hayashi.
She was one of two motorists who described the execution-style killing of Benjamin Grajeda last week on Kaneohe Bay Drive.
Lindsey, 26, is charged with second-degree murder, terroristic threatening and firearm offenses.
William Lee Freeman, 35, who is charged with kidnapping and obstructing justice in the case, also identified Lindsey as the gunman, according to police homicide Detective Sheryl Sunia.
Hayashi sent the cases to Circuit Court for trial, with an arraignment set for June 4. The two men remain in custody in lieu of $3 million bail each.
Sunia testified that Freeman told her he was at Grajeda's Kaneohe home last Monday night when Lindsey and another man he identified only as "Pigway" started beating Grajeda.
A motive in the case remains unclear.
Later, Freeman said he, Lindsey and Pigway drove off with Grajeda in the trunk of his car. But he felt the situation was escalating, and wanted to help Grajeda.
"He stated that he hit the trunk release button and the trunk opened," Sunia testified.
Freeman told Sunia that Grajeda escaped and that Lindsey jumped out of the car and chased after him.
Meanwhile, Nault was driving toward Kaneohe to take her daughter's boyfriend home after he and her daughter had gone to a movie.
She testified that she stopped suddenly because a white man was running straight at her from the opposite direction. Nault said a black man was running behind the first man and fired three to five shots over the top of her van.
Another witness, Denise Wagner-Giltner, said she and her daughter had just come from Windward Mall and were heading Kailua-bound on Kaneohe Bay Drive when she heard what sounded like fireworks.
She said Grajeda was lying motionless in the middle of the roadway as he was being shot.
Wagner-Giltner said she pulled her daughter's steering wheel to the right to avoid having their vehicle get too close to the shooter.
"I told Nicole to step on it, to put her foot on the gas," she recalled, "and she realized she shouldn't stop."
She said they ducked as they passed because the shooter raised his arm toward them. They heard more shots, she said, but nothing hit their vehicle.
