BRIGHTON — Prosecutors say a code-enforcement officer saw Harry Denard Williams, 23, with a gun in his hand after Rodney Morales was shot in the hallway of a north Aurora apartment building Nov. 13.
On Tuesday, during opening arguments in the first-degree murder trial of Williams, Adams County prosecutor Alex Dorotik said Morales, a 40-year-old Aurora code officer, was inside the building conducting a routine inspection when Williams entered and shot him.
The second officer outside heard a “bang,” then saw a man in a hooded sweat shirt — whom prosecutors say was Williams — run out of the building on Clinton Street.
“She saw in his hand a silver gun,” Dorotik said.
A sweat shirt that prosecutors say Williams was wearing was found in a nearby Dumpster. DNA tests later were used to conclude that it belonged to Williams.
A few hours after the shooting, Williams’ ex-girlfriend, Tiffany Wright, called police and said she recognized the sweat shirt shown on the evening news and that it belonged to Williams.
But defense attorney Scott Evans said Wright was trying to cash in on the $10,000 reward police offered, calling it a “tale of an ex-girlfriend up for sale.”
Wright was the first witness to take the stand. She said that after the shooting, Williams came to her home, which was near the apartment complex, and asked to use her phone. “He looked kind of like detached, like he needed some help,” Wright said.
Williams stayed at her house for several hours as police searched for the shooter in the neighborhood, including the alley behind her home. “He just sat there silent,” Wright said.
Wright, who has two children, was broke, had lost her food stamps and acknowledged Tuesday that the money was the major reason she turned in Williams. “I probably, maybe would have turned him in anyway,” Wright said.
Defense attorney Evans said authorities do not have a motive for the murder and prosecutors did not offer one in opening statements.
