Life was good for Carl Batie.
The former corrections officer had a flourishing career. He had just bought a new BMW and planned to take it for a spin with his brother, Karshawn, to the Baldassari Regency banquet hall on Nov. 10, 2012.
The two brothers were a few years apart but inseparable whether at home or in the bathroom. They headed to the banquet hall around 10 p.m. for a party celebrating the re-election of President Barack Obama.
Maurice Skillman
When they arrived, Carl flaked out $50 to pay both he and his brother’s cover charge.
“He treated me,” Karshawn said on the witness stand Thursday.
Karshawn, 28, a burly corrections officer in Burlington County whose form-fitting black shirt hardly contained his ripped biceps, was the first witness to take the stand in the retrial of two men suspected of fatally shooting his brother on the deck of the banquet hall.
Maurice Skillman and Hykeem Tucker are charged with murder, Skillman for allegedly pulling the trigger while Tucker acted as a lookout in the early-morning hours of Nov. 11, 2012.
"We know the who but we don't know the why," Assistant Prosecutor Heather Hadley told jurors in openings.
Nicole Carlo, Skillman’s attorney, said her client also went to the club with his twin brother, Marquis, to have a good time. She said he ended up “wrongfully accused” of murder.
She said the police rushed to charge her client, based on Trenton Police detective Scott Peterson’s review of grainy surveillance footage, and his word that a tall, slender man who appears in the tapes is Skillman, the shooter.
“We're not talking about a house party. We're talking about Baldassari Regency,” Carlo said. “Were there no other tall, slender individuals there?”
Chris Campbell, Tucker’s attorney, said prosecutors must prove his client was somehow involved in the murder. He said he and his client could sit back and “twiddle our thumbs” and have no obligation to put on a case.
Campbell said Batie’s death was tragic, but added “convicting someone who was not involved in this is not going to bring him back.”
Like he did at the first trial, Karshawn described the unfolding horror from the moment gunshots rang out shortly after 1 a.m. He and his brother had stepped out onto the packed balcony to get fresh air before they left the banquet hall for the night.
Karshawn said his brother didn’t like the area where he parked his new whip, in an elementary school parking lot not far from the banquet hall. They planned to leave around 1:30 a.m., ahead of the crowd so they could beat traffic.
As the brothers walked of the glass doors onto the deck, Carl saw Alex Feliciano standing on a wooden plank near the balcony.
Hykeem Tucker
Feliciano testified he was working security detail at the club and was perched on the plank to keep a watchful eye on the crowd.
He also had a good view of the parking lot below, where a suspect in a dark gray hoodie emerged from “out of the shadows,” Hadley said.
The shooter sprayed 22 shots in rapid succession from on top of the hood of a car and then ran off down an alley, enveloped by darkness, Feliciano said. He didn’t get a look at the shooter’s face, as he was forced to duck for cover when the shots rang out.
Feliciano’s testimony mirrored what he said at the first trial in February, which ended in a hung jury.
A convicted felon, Feliciano has served time at the county jail where he ran into Batie. They had also played basketball together in the past.
Karshawn said his brother immediately recognized Feliciano. They smiled at each other and he went over to greet him, while Karshawn remained near the doors.
His eyes, however, remained fixed on his brother, until the shots rang out.
Batie and Feliciano discussed the correction officer’s dog breeding business. While Batie showed Feliciano pictures of dogs on his phone, a burst of gunfire sent everyone to the floor.
Karshawn said a woman grabbed him and told him to get down. After the gunfire stopped, he scanned the panicked crowd for his brother but didn’t see him.
“You're gonna look for your brother forget everybody else,” Karshawn said.
He finally spotted him on the floor of the balcony. He had been shot in the head, about two inches above his right eye, Karshawn said.
Batie’s eye watered, blood squirting from the bullet wound, onto the patio deck, Feliciano said. Batie appeared to try to say something but couldn’t muster the words.
Karshawn ran to his brother’s side, begged him to stay with him and looked out on the streets. People ran in all directions, others fought. He saw an ambulance down the block, but it was blocked by the panicked patrons.
He heard someone tell him to call his mother to tell her what happened.
“How do you tell your mother something like this?” he said, his voice cracking as he reached for a tissue to wipe tears from his eyes.
When the paramedics arrived, Karshawn asked them if his brother was going to make it.
“They didn't say anything,” he said.