Fisk goes on trial for drive-by shooting
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Meanwhile, the defense for Fisk maintains shooting victim David Estrada, an admitted illegal alien from Mexico, is mistaken ‘ with one of his fellow witnesses claiming during trial Thursday that black people mostly look the same.
‘Too bad my client was the only black man in line at Wal-Mart that night,’ said defense attorney Bud Sharp. ‘Once this hit the paper, they had to blame it on somebody.’
Fisk faces three counts of attempted first-degree murder, each carrying up to 25 years in prison, for allegedly opening fire on the evening of Dec. 22, 2005, on a truck driven by Adon Estrada. His backseat passenger and brother, David Estrada, was struck in the back when one of the four rounds which hit the truck passed through the side door and hit him in the back. The bullet remains in his back.
‘At first we thought we had a flat tire,’ the victim said after hearing the first shot. ‘Then I got hit and I began falling over in the floor.’
David Estrada said he, his brother and friend Jorge Batista had been at Wal-Mart shopping for a Christmas dinner. He added that he came to Warren County to find work, leaving his wife and two small children in Mexico.
‘I want to better myself and my country is poor and you can earn little money,’ David Estrada said through his translator.
The three testified they saw Fisk inside Wal-Mart as they were checking out, with Fisk saying something to one of them. They said they saw him again, riding as a passenger in a vehicle as they were in the parking lot.
Adon Estrada and Jorge Batista would later testify he was in the same car that passed them with a hail of bullets on Sparta Highway. They said they remembered how the car looked and remembered it had a temporary tag in the back window.
Prosecutors, during opening arguments, said Fisk borrowed the car from his father and say they can link him to the car by a Wal-Mart receipt found inside it which shows he checked out of Wal-Mart right after the victims. Prosecutors also say they found the bullet casings on the highway which they can link to a gun found inside a home where Fisk was staying.
In light of the eyewitness testimony, Sharp maintained there were holes in the victims’ stories.
First, Sharp asked why the men would drive their wounded friend to White County when they were only three minutes from River Park.
‘Who’s perfect when you’re being shot at’? Adon Estrada asked. His passenger, Batista, pointed out the shooter or shooters had turned around on the four lane going the opposite way (back toward McMinnville) meaning to go to River Park they would have had to fall in behind the people who had just opened fire on them. They also said they stopped to pick up a friend who spoke English so he could translate at the hospital.
All three men said they could not see who shot at them from the car, saying only they were sure it was the same car they saw minutes earlier at Wal-Mart with Fisk in it. All three said they had never seen Fisk before and that no ill words were exchanged at Wal-Mart.
‘Where’s the motive’? Sharp asked, suggesting maybe the victims had a shoot-out with other Hispanics the night in question. ‘Why would you just go out and shoot somebody.’
Sharp questioned further as to why the men would even notice Fisk in enough detail to later identify him. Sharp went so far as to suggest Batista simply saw a black man and could not differentiate.
‘Do all black people look alike’? Sharp asked Batista.
‘Yes, many do,’ Batista replied.
Testimony will continue today as the court has set aside at least two days to try the case. Fisk remains held awaiting his fate before a jury.