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Witness Recounts Slaying At Federal Death Penalty Trial

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 26, 2009

TAMPA - It was just before 9 p.m. when the doorbell rang.

Prayer Hamilton said he put his foot against the door and asked, "Who is it?"

"Three guys rushed in," Hamilton recalled from the witness stand today. One held him in the kitchen, while the other two went to other rooms in the house. The home's other occupants, Tyrone Williams and Carlton Potts, were watching television.

It was Oct. 19, 2006, inside a Bartow drug house that law enforcement officials call "the Carter." Before the end of the night, Potts would be shot dead, execution-style.

The man authorities say fired the shot, Jermaine Michael Julian, is on trial in federal court. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Testifying, Hamilton said one of the robbers took his cash, credit cards and identification before pistol-whipping him and taking him into the living room.

"A guy walks up to me and asks where everything is," he said.

Hamilton said he replied "I don't know. I don't live here."

He was hit in the head with a liquor bottle and dropped to the floor.

"I hear the guy in the room with Carlton asking where everything is at," Hamilton continued.

Potts told the robber he had everything. Another of the robbers said, "Let's go," Hamilton testified. "The other one said, 'Let's get everyone in one room.' "

Herded into Potts' room, Hamilton lay face down on the floor. Julian, who is black, used a slang racial epithet and kept saying, "I wanna burn one of these" people, Hamilton said.

He said he started "panicking, like, oh man, I'm about to get shot."

Potts was on his back, not saying anything, Hamilton testified.

The gunman acted as if he was going to leave, then turned around and pulled the trigger.

"Carlton was hit," Hamilton said.

The gunman pulled the trigger some more times.

"I don't know if it was empty or not, but nothing was coming out," Hamilton said.

"I just got the big eyes – went to looking crazy and praying for my life," he said.

Investigators found three live rounds of ammunition that had been struck by a gun's firing pin but ejected from the weapon without exploding.

Hamilton testified that he didn't know cocaine was being sold at the house, although he knew some people sold marijuana. He also said the house was not called "the Carter" and described it as "a place of residence."

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Jeffrey Brown, he denied portraying himself on the Internet as a gangster and drug dealer. He also denied telling police about people buying drugs at the house.

Brown read extensively from a transcript of an interview Hamilton had with investigators, but Hamilton denied saying what was in the transcript.

When Brown showed photographs of drugs and drug paraphernalia in the house, Hamilton said: "All that stuff was invisible to my eye."

The trial continues Friday.

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini@tampatrib.com.

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