Dustin Hayes said he hoped the popping noise he heard on that hot July day in 2012 was just firecrackers.
Hayes testified Thursday in Hamilton County Criminal Court that he knew he was driving Ronald Cosper, 21, to a house in Avondale so that Cosper could rob “the weed man,” but said he had no idea the incident would end in murder.
Hayes, 21, said he was waiting for Cosper in his grandmother’s 1991 white Buick when he heard three consecutive bangs. Minutes later, Cosper came around the block, got back into the car and told him the robbery went wrong — he’d fired three shots at 39-year-old Steve Mosley.
Ronald CosperHayes said he drove away with Cosper and Devante Stoudemire, 22, a co-defendant whose case is pending. Still in the car, Cosper made a phone call, according to Hayes.
“Whoever was on the phone must have known what was going down or something,” Hayes said. Cosper “proceeded to tell how [Mosley] fought back, and how he had to burn him — or shoot him, which is what burn means.”