Trial begins in case of murdered 12-year old

SEATTLE -- A murder trial began Wednesday for a Kent man accused of shooting a 12-year-old in the back.

Prosecutors say Curtis Walker shot and killed Alajawan Brown in April, 2010 in Skyway when he confused the boy with a rival gang member.

Just prior to the shooting, Walker and a friend nicknamed "D-Ro" got into a possibly gang related gunfight in Skyway, according to prosecutors.

As the two friends fled the scene, Walker allegedly spotted Brown a block away.

"The defendant shot him, mistaking him for somebody else," said prosecutor Jessica Berliner.

Brown had just stepped off a bus and had nothing to do with the gun battle that erupted just minutes before. The boy happened to be wearing a blue windbreaker, and prosecutors say Walker thought he was a rival gang member.

"It explains why when he saw Alajawan, dressed in blue, he decided to kill him," Berliner said.

Defense attorneys told jurors that "D-Ro" is the real killer, but the state has invested too much in him as a witness against Walker and won't back down.

"And this case is about the state's coddling of the shooter because they made a mistake at the beginning," said defense attorney Jerry Stimmel.

A medical assistant named Chanell Cameron was one of the first people on the scene of the shooting. She said she attempted CPR, but it was too late.

"He ended up dying right there," Cameron said. "I mean, we tried to do the CPR, but he took his last breath."

Prosecutors warned the jury that there will be many contradictions in eye witness accounts and jurors will have to decide what's relevant.

The trial is expected to last three weeks.