A Columbia teenager admitted to killing a 2005 Wilde Lake High School graduate who was “disrespecting” him, but said he used the victim’s own gun in self-defense.
Antajuan Wilson, 19, told police in a recorded April 12 interview that he shot Bryan Adams, 20, of Columbia, near the Wilde Lake Village Center on Twin Rivers Road, but said Adams was “talking slick” and threatening him with a pistol.
“I couldn’t let him just talk like that. … I’ve built my life on not lettin’ nobody disrespect me,” Wilson said in the interview, which was played aloud in Howard Circuit Court on Tuesday.
“Kill or be killed, you know what I’m saying?” he said. “What would y’all do if someone pulled a gun on you?”
Howard Circuit Judge Richard Bernhardt listened to the audio recording Tuesday in considering whether to toss Wilson’s confession out of evidence before his December trial.
Defense attorney Mary Pizzo argued that Wilson’s statements are impermissible, citing her client’s multiple requests for an attorney during the interrogation and the detective’s refusal to grant him a phone call.
Wearing a gray jail jumpsuit, Wilson laid his head on the counsel table as the audio recording of his confession was played in court. Pizzo placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
According to the interview, Wilson was waiting outside a nearby gas station for a pack of cigarettes on April 9, when Adams and his two friends accused him of staring at them.
After a brief altercation, Wilson said he went to his grandmother’s house across the street to change his clothes and get a knife before confronting Adams again.
Wilson said he didn’t intend to kill anyone when he went back across the street, but Adams pulled out a pistol, and he responded by snatching it away and shooting Adams with his own gun.
“It took two seconds to make that decision,” Wilson said in the interview, “and I’m never going to see daylight again.”
Wilson faces up to life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder. He also is charged with first-degree assault and handgun violations.
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