Jeannette man on trial for homicide tells jury: 'I pulled the trigger'

A Jeannette man testified Wednesday he felt he had no choice to shoot and kill a friend who punched him in the face during a car ride through the city.

Stuart Ali, 47, told a Westmoreland County jury that he feared for his safety when 43-year-old Marcus Davis lunged toward him during a standoff outside of a vehicle stopped in the intersection at Gaskill Avenue and North Seventh Street in the early hours of April 15, 2021.

“We were separated by a few arms’ lengths and, Marcus said, ‘You are not going to shoot me.’ As soon as he said that he charged to me, and that’s when I shot him,” Ali testified during the third day of his homicide trial.

Prosecutors said Ali shot Davis in cold blood, execution-style, after the two men argued as they drove through Jeannette with Ali’s son in the car along with a Greensburg couple they met hours earlier at a bar.

According to prosecution witnesses, the fight between Ali and Davis started after Davis went into a Jeannette apartment building with $300 given to him by the Greensburg couple to purchase cocaine. Prosecutors said Ali also struck a deal to have sex with the female passenger in the car.

When Davis returned to the vehicle, he intended to keep the drugs, witnesses testified and Ali confirmed Wednesday.

A bag with cocaine was found in Davis’ sock after the shooting, according to police.

Ali claimed he acted in self-defense.

He said he and Davis argued over the dead man’s plan to renege on the drug deal. Ali told jurors Davis punched him in the face and called him a punk. As the men got out of the vehicle, Ali claimed Davis reached for a gun in his waist band. Ali disarmed him and fired the weapon out of fear to protect himself and his son, he testified.

Ali said he had known Davis for several years and had a violent altercation with him months earlier when Davis hit him over the head with a beer bottle. Still, the men continued to socialize and agreed to go out together the night of the shooting, the prosecution said.

“I pulled the trigger. I ain’t denying it,” Ali said during questioning from Assistant District Attorney Jim Lazar.

The weapon used in the shooting was never recovered. Ali testified he left the gun at the shooting scene after he drove off, picked up his son who was walking a block from the incident, went home, changed clothes and fled to Uniontown.

The prosecution claims Ali is guilty of first-degree murder and a weapons offense.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Jennifer Hammers testified that Davis was shot 10 times, including once in the back of his neck, causing the bullet to travel through his head. Davis also was found with nine other wounds to his left abdomen and thigh areas, including one shot that severed a portion of his aorta.

She suggested that the location and nature of the wounds indicated that Davis was struck by one shot to the back of his lower neck and nine additional rounds to the left side of his body as he lay on the ground.

“Mr. Davis was either not moving or not moving in a significant way (when he was shot),” Hammers testified.

Lawyers are expected to deliver their closing arguments to the jury when the trial reconvenes Thursday before Common Pleas Court Judge Christopher Feliciani.