Teens Say They Misled Authorities About Slaying

Two teenagers who had said they witnessed the March slaying of a 14-year-old girl in the Central Area spent yesterday in King County Superior Court furiously denying the tape-recorded accounts they had given police.

Willard Jimerson, 13, and Kaai Williams, 24, are being tried on first-degree-murder charges in the March 11 shooting of Jamie Lynn Wilson of Sand Point. Wilson was shot, prosecutors allege, by Jimerson and Williams after being beaten by a group of girls.

Yesterday, 14-year-old Tashanell Trowell said she was drunk the night of the beating and shooting and could recall nothing of it. She said the detailed, taped statement she gave to police, in which she identified Jimerson as the shooter, was based on what two other girls told her and not on personal knowledge.

Trowell, who had been released from juvenile detention just hours before the killing, said she passed off the account as her own because she didn't want her aunt to know she had been drinking.

"You were more concerned with your aunt knowing you were drinking than telling the truth about a 14-year-old girl's death?" asked Deputy Prosecutor Patricia Eakes.

"Yeah," said Trowell with a shrug. She also said she didn't think at the time the homicide would be "all that important."

Trowell testified she also couldn't remember anything about a signed statement to police just an hour after the slaying.

Jimerson's defense attorney, Don Minor, noted in

cross-examination that the account Trowell gave to police involved Jimerson taking the gun from Williams after the first shot was fired.

Prosecutors allege Jimerson shot first and Williams fired second, using the same gun.

Cinque Garrett, Williams' 18-year-old cousin, also testified yesterday and recanted his statement to police about seeing Jimerson shoot.

He said he was too far away to clearly see the shooting but that Williams, whom he described as "family," was beside him and not involved. He said he had blamed Jimerson because he thought that was what police wanted.

Garrett was arrested as a material witness in May and yesterday told jurors he felt he wouldn't be released unless he accused Jimerson.

Garrett is awaiting his own murder trial in connection with a Torchlight Parade-night slaying and has been convicted of five felonies in Juvenile Court.

Superior Court Judge Norma Huggins told jurors the taped out-of-court statements from Garrett and Trowell could not be used as evidence against the defendants, but only to assess witness credibility.

Two girls who beat Wilson before the shooting have already implicated both defendants. A friend of Jimerson testified Williams was the lone shooter.

Wilson left her mother's home late March 10 to visit friends in the Central Area. Near 23rd Avenue and East Cherry Street, she was attacked by a group of girls just after midnight.

After being beaten and chased and beaten again, Wilson sat dazed on a curb across the street from Garfield High School. That's when she was shot, prosecutors say.

Jimerson is one of the youngest people ever tried on murder charges in King County Superior Court.

Adrienne Smith, 15, testified last week her friend started the fight with Wilson and that all the girls soon joined. Wilson and Smith had fought at a school dance a month before, and both were suspended for three days.

The trial is expected to continue into next week.