A witness testified he saw murder defendant Jerrico Lindsey shoot in the back a robbery victim who had his hands in the air on Kaneohe Bay Drive in May 2007.

Reginald Pettway testified yesterday as a prosecution witness against Lindsey, who is charged with second-degree murder for allegedly gunning down Benjamin Grajeda. In a deal with the state, Pettway pleaded guilty in August to second-degree robbery and kidnapping.

Pettway, 31, said he came to Hawaii with his friend and other co-defendant William Lee Freeman Jr. for a vacation and had no idea Freeman and Lindsey planned to rob Grajeda. He said he thought they went to Grajeda's Kaneohe apartment to beat him up for shooting at them three days earlier. He said they also went there to pick up Lindsey's girlfriend, Melissa Ordonez.

At the apartment, Pettway said he choked Grajeda as Freeman and Lindsey beat him.

Afterward, he said, Grajeda agreed to go into the trunk of their car, and they drove off. When Grajeda escaped from the trunk, Pettway said he told Freeman to stop Lindsey from going after Grajeda.

“;I told him to catch Mr. Lindsey before he does something stupid,”; Pettway testified.

He said he saw Lindsey chase Grajeda around the car and shoot at him over the roof of the car, then shoot Grajeda when he was on the ground.

The three men fled in the car toward the North Shore with Honolulu police in pursuit. They abandoned their car in Haleiwa and fled on foot. Police caught Freeman nearby and Lindsey near Laniakea Beach.

Pettway said he ran as far as he could, then called Lindsey's mother, who lives on Oahu, to pick him up. The three men were at her home earlier in the evening. He said he flew back to Alabama two days later.

Police caught up to him in Alabama in November 2007 from information on a cell phone left in the car.