Kent jury hears opening statements in Devin Topps murder case

A jury heard opening statements Tuesday about whether Jorge Lizarraga pulled the trigger of a gun that killed Devin Topps in Kent in 2010 during a fight after a Halloween party.

The trial is expected to last at least until the second week of December in front of King County Superior Court Judge Patrick Oishi and a 16-member jury, 12 of whom will later deliberate the case.

Topps, 18, a popular Kentridge High School student and football player, became involved in a fist fight with another man outside the house party when prosecutors alleged Lizarraga pulled out a gun and fired multiple shots into the air, causing people at the party to scatter. Lizarraga, now 23, pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder charge in March 2011.

“Devin is still locked up in the fight when _ what can only be described as an act of cowardice _ the defendant (Lizarraga) with the gun walks up to Devin places it right up against his back and pulls the trigger,” said Jerry Taylor, deputy prosecuting attorney, during his opening statement.

Topps died at the scene of the 2 a.m. shooting outside of a home in the 20200 block of 92nd Avenue South. Topps had signed in 2010 to play football at Eastern Washington University but didn’t enroll in the school because of low grades. He had hoped to enroll at Eastern in winter 2011. Nearly 1,000 people attended the memorial service for Topps three years ago.

Taylor said witnesses and crime evidence will prove Lizarraga is guilty of shooting Topps once in the back and killing him.

Defense attorney Jerry Stimmel, however, said during his opening statement that Lizarraga didn’t shoot Topps. He said at least two and maybe as many as four guns were fired during the fight.

“Nobody really saw what happened,” Stimmel said. “You will learn from the evidence that all of the witnesses who claim to have seen Jorge Lizarraga shoot Devin Topps placed him in a place that he could not have been the shooter. They all place Mr. Lizarraga not close enough to do the shooting.”

Stimmel referred to Taylor’s opening statement about how the King County Medical Examiner’s Office autopsy determined the barrel of the gun left an impression on the back of Topps because the shooter stood so close. Stimmel said witnesses can’t place Lizarraga right behind Topps.

Prosecutors plan to call police officers, detectives, forensic experts and witnesses to testify over the next few weeks.

How the fight started

Topps attended the Halloween costume party dressed in one of his old football jerseys and wore football pants with pads.

“Devin’s passion was football,” Taylor said to the jury. “He played the game since he was a little kid. His love and dedication to that game earned him a scholarship to Eastern Washington University. Instead of attending Eastern Washington and fulfilling his dreams, in the early hours of Halloween in 2010 Devin laid in the street.”

Topps left the party to walk a female friend to her car to get her cellphone when he saw a group of individuals he didn’t know. Someone from the group made a comment to Topps and he shrugged it off, Taylor said. When Topps and his friend walked back to return to the party, someone made another comment to Topps.

“He (Topps) let the loudmouth know if that’s what he wanted to do they could take it to the street,” Taylor said.

But then someone else sucker-punched Topps from behind and the fight began.

A short while later, Taylor alleged that Lizarraga pulled out a gun and fired it into the air multiple times. People ran for cover. Taylor said Lizarraga then shot Topps in the back.

Lizarraga fled the scene. Kent Police arrested him two months later in December 2010 in SeaTac. Detectives had used evidence from nine shell casings found at the shooting to connect the gun to Lizarraga, who allegedly stole the gun four days before the shooting from a Washington State Patrol trooper’s house in Federal Way during a burglary. Federal Way Police detectives reportedly found fingerprints of Lizarraga at the home.

“Devin had been shot by a man with a cop’s gun,” Taylor said. “The man that shot Devin that night was not a cop. It was the defendant Jorge Lizarraga.”

The motel room

Detectives found the gun, taken from the trooper’s home, in a Des Moines motel room where Lizarraga stayed with his then girlfriend. Taylor said the former girlfriend will testify about the gun.

“She will tell you that the defendant was worried and said he needed to get rid of that gun because police would be able to trace it back to him,” Taylor said.

Detectives found the gun under a dresser in the motel room.

Stimmel, the defense attorney, told the jury that Lizarraga’s gun found in the motel isn’t the one used to shoot Topps.

“Mr. Lizarraga was at the party but he was associated with a revolver,” Stimmel said. “The revolver was not the gun that shot Mr. Topps. Somebody shot Mr. Topps, apparently with a semi-automatic. But Mr. Lizarraga was never close enough to Devin Topps to do it.

“There were other shooters and other guns. I’m not sure we will be able to tell you who was the shooter, maybe we will. But it wasn’t Jorge. We will ask you at the end of this for a not guilty verdict to the murder.”

The defense attorney said the motel room where Lizarraga stayed had many guests.

“It was procured for a number of people by a surrogate who signed up for the motel and lots of people walked through that motel,” Stimmel said. “People came and people went. Guns came and guns went.”