Alevtina Zhilina was killed without knowing her murderer.
She died reaching to unmask the man who was pointing a gun at her head and demanding money during her shift as a clerk at the 7-Eleven convenience store on Columbia Road.
Howard prosecutors said Charles Richardson, 26, a convicted killer, was the man behind the mask, and multiple witnesses testified Wednesday that Richardson not only confessed to the slaying, but bragged about it.
Joseph Beard, 26, of Columbia, told the jury he was at Richardson’s house in the days following the shooting when Richardson admitted to shooting Zhilina, 40.
“He said he was trying to rob the store, and she tried to grab the gun and he shot her,” Beard testified. “He said her body fell and he ran.”
Beard identified the alleged murder weapon as the same gun he watched Richardson purchase from a neighborhood friend the day before the shooting.
Beard said Richardson asked the friend if he would sell it to him for $400.
“He bought it right then and there,” Beard said.
Beard’s testimony was corroborated by William Richardson, 23, who testified that he helped his brother, Charles Richardson, pay for the gun and was awoken the morning of the shooting by his brother asking for help in hiding the gun.
William Richardson said his brother confessed to shooting Zhilina.
Defense attorney Mark Van Bavel maintained Richardson was not the shooter and suggested the witnesses had something to gain from testifying, such as reward money from police.
The jury trial before Howard Circuit Judge Diane Leasure is expected to conclude this morning.
Richardson is also awaiting sentencing for a previous murder conviction in the May 2007 murder of 19-year-old Trae Allen.
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