HOUSTON — It was a dramatic day of testimony in day three of Andre Jackson's murder trial.
Four people took the stand on Tuesday saying they saw and heard bits and pieces of what happened the day Josue Flores was killed, but no single person saw it from start to finish.
The witnesses said they thought someone was just being roughed up, but found the little boy unconscious and covered in blood after his attacker ran away.
Robert Figueroa told jurors he and his friend, Josh Hubbard, were on the front porch of a friend’s home on Fulton at James Street on the afternoon of May 17, 2016.
Hubbard says shortly after seeing a man walk by the house, he heard a muffled yell. He testified that he and Figueroa saw the same man, with his back turned, and a boy.
“Just threw him. He was just roughing him up. It was just a punching motion," Hubbard told prosecutors. He then demonstrated the motion.
“It looked like someone was in a headlock being upper-cutted,” Figueroa testified as he demonstrated the motion.
Figueroa says when he ran into the street, the attacker ran away north on Fulton, and Flores fell on his stomach.
“I was like, ‘Hey kid, you alright?’” recalled Figueroa. “I didn’t think anything of it. I just thought he had been roughed up.”
When he saw blood and Flores didn’t respond, Figueroa said he told Hubbard to grab his gun and he called 911.
Another witness, Richard Guerra, testified he heard the boy yelling, “Please, please, don’t kill me, take anything.”
He told jurors that when he stepped outside his house, he saw a man punching the kid and then take off running with the same green jacket seen on surveillance video. Guerra then says he approached Flores, who told him he wanted to go home.
He said Flores took a few steps, then fell to the ground. Guerra continued in his own car trying to chase down the suspect.
Josue, who'd been stabbed more than 20 times, died at the scene, just a few blocks from his home.
Jurors also heard the 911 call.
During a lot of that testimony, Andre Jackson slowly swiveled his chair side to side with his hands folded.
Josue Flores’ dad, Juan Flores Sr., sat huddled forward or sitting with his arms crossed as witnesses described his son’s murder.
Today, prosecutors also brought a green jacket with distinctive lettering to court. They said it matches the one a man seen running from near the murder site was wearing. Surveillance video showed him running minutes after the attack.
An HPD homicide detective testified the jacket was hanging on a chair six feet from Jackson inside his room at a men’s shelter when he was arrested.
Jackson’s lawyer raised questions about the process to get the search warrant for Jackson’s room.
“The defense is very aggressive in trying to poke holes and capitalize on the things that officers and witnesses have forgotten. So we’re hoping that the prosecutor’s able to put this thing together based on the evidence," said Agustin Pinedo with LULAC.
Prosecutors say DNA on that green jacket is the key piece of evidence linking Jackson to the murder.