Dec 10, 2003 By Jennifer Harr 4 min read

Torey Peterson testified Tuesday that he thought William Eric Mason was going to rob him when he walked into a Hunters Ridge apartment last January. Peterson was staying with a friend at the time and said Mason, whom he did not know and had never seen before, approached him, swearing and reaching into the front of his pants. Peterson testified he then grabbed him.

In the ensuing struggle, a gun Peterson testified Mason brought into the house fell and the men struggled over it. A few seconds later, testified Peterson, Mason was shot.

Peterson, 24, of Allison took the stand in his own defense Tuesday in Fayette County Court, and told jurors that he never intended to shoot Mason the night of the shooting, Jan. 11. He is charged with criminal homicide in the 23-year-old Jefferson man’s death and prosecutors are seeking a first-degree murder conviction.

Peterson testified that around 4 a.m., there was a knock on the door of his friend’s apartment, and a white man he had never seen before came into the apartment, saying, “I’m with T.J.”

Peterson testified he looked to Darius “Big D” Johnson, who was also in the apartment, thinking that maybe Johnson knew the man, but he did not.

“I was scared, because I knew a dude named T.J. that I had some problems with before,” testified Peterson, who asked Johnson to call the police.

T.J., however, was Timothy Marlisko, the man who brought Mason to the Hunters Ridge, Redstone Township, housing project around 3:30 a.m. Marlisko testified Monday that he brought Mason after he asked him several times to go to the project. While Mason waited in the car, Marlisko went into a man’s home.

Marlisko testified he told Mason to stay in the vehicle because no one there knew him, and he was drunk and “obnoxious.”

Marlisko later left Hunters Ridge without Mason and initially lied to police when asked if he drove him there.

Johnson, said Peterson, headed to the kitchen, declining to help. Johnson testified Monday that he did walk out of the room when Mason entered because he wanted no part of a fight.

Peterson told the six-man, six-woman jury that he held Mason briefly, then pushed him toward the hallway, where a gun fell to the ground. The men fought, crouched to the floor, testified Peterson, and the 45 mm handgun discharged.

“Both of our hands were on the gun. We were fighting. I was trying to stop him from shooting me,” testified Peterson of the 30-second confrontation.

Johnson and another man at the apartment immediately left, said Peterson, but he told them they should stay.

“I told them, ‘Don’t leave. It’s going to look like I just killed him,'” testified Peterson, who is being represented by Assistant Public Defender David Kaiser.

“Well did you kill him?” asked District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon.

“No,” replied Peterson.

“Well, is he living or dead?” asked Vernon.

“I didn’t (expletive) kill him,” testified Peterson.

After the shooting, Peterson testified he left the apartment and went to the nearby home of another Hunters Ridge resident to use the phone so that he could call 911 and his mother. There, Peterson testified that Larry Durant told him that police might use the 45 mm Peterson still had on him as a reason to shoot him.

So, Peterson said, he tossed it in the woods. He later told police that he gave the gun to another man, and that he tossed the weapon before he went to Durant’s house.

Peterson also testified that he told police that he “blacked out” during the shooting because he thought they were trying to make him seem guilty of a crime during interviews. He later admitted that was a lie.

Jurors also heard testimony from various state police officials who testified that there were no identifiable fingerprints on the gun or the magazine. John P. Evans of the Harrisburg crime lab testified that there was no gunshot primer residue on either Peterson’s or Mason’s hands.

However, Evans testified that just washing hands would have removed that residue.

Allegheny County Forensic Pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht testified that tests performed on Mason after his death showed he had a .143 blood-alcohol level and that he had small traces of marijuana in his blood and urine.

Wecht also testified that because of the small powder burns in and around the wound on Mason’s head, he estimated that the gun was 1 to 1 1/2 inches away when the fatal shot was fired.

Before Peterson took the stand, Kaiser asked Judge Gerald R. Solomon to dismiss the case entirely because prosecutors failed to prove that Peterson acted in a criminal manner when he shot Mason.

Solomon denied that request.

Jurors will hearing closing arguments and the charge of the law today.