"I picked up a stick, and I hit one person who was on the ground," Eugene Riley said in a gravelly voice as he leaned forward on the witness stand. "It was a reaction — I was scared and I didn't know what was going on."
Riley, 20, seemed to contradict himself several times on cross-examination, conceding it did not appear from the infamous video that he was protecting either his brother or himself when he attacked Albert,16.
Riley's brother, Vashion Bullock, had been kicked out of school earlier that day for fighting. When the brothers went back to the area as classes were letting out, Riley testified, their car was hit by rocks and bottles, and his brother was attacked as he checked the damage to the car. Riley said he was dazed by a blow to his head.
"I remember I was swinging at the person who had my little brother on the ground," he said. "Then I got hit by a stick by someone."
A five-second segment of the video became the focus of the trial Monday. With Albert already down and semiconscious, Riley appeared to run at him and swing a long wooden board in a high arc, slamming it down onto Albert's head. Then, as other combatants continued to kick and stomp Albert, Riley swung the board one more time, striking Albert's body, prosecutors said.
The video played in Judge Nicholas Ford's courtroom moved some of Albert's family members audibly. Albert's mother, Anjanette, balled her fist in front of her mouth.
When Riley was arrested three days after the beating, he repeatedly told detectives he was just trying to protect his brother. At one point during his 23-minute videotaped interrogation, Detective William Sullivan stood up in the tiny interview room and mimicked how Riley swung the board, then yelled "Boom!"
"Before you hit him, he was moving, and after you hit him, he wasn't moving at all," Sullivan said.
Riley started to cry and responded in a choked-up voice, "This is crazy, man!"
On the witness stand Monday, Riley showed little emotion. He told Assistant State's Attorney Kathy Bankhead on cross-examination that — looking at the video of the melee in the courtroom — he could see that Albert appeared to be holding up his hand, pleading for the attack to stop.
"But you didn't stop, did you?" Bankhead asked.
"I wasn't paying attention to it," Riley said.
Two others, Eric Carson and Silvonus Shannon, were convicted as adults in Albert's slaying, while a 15-year-old boy was found guilty of murder in juvenile court. A fifth defendant, Lapoleon Colbert, is awaiting trial
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