With his hands resting in his lap, defendant Willie “Bud” Adams Jr. sat quietly in a Fairfield County courtroom Wednesday as he listened to witness testimony detailing his alleged involvement with drugs and the chain of events that led to the shooting death of Ridgeway resident Alphra Lee Miller.

Without a jury present Wednesday morning, five witnesses – acquaintances of both the victim and defendant – testified how Adams believed Miller had stolen an unknown item from the residence of Bryan Lawhorn, 3252 Flint Hill Rd., Ridgeway. According to some witness testimony, the missing item was believed to be illegal drugs.

Witness Vicki Smith told Solicitor Doug Barfield she was on the front porch of the residence when she heard Adams ask Miller about the missing drugs.

“‘You stole my [expletive] dope’,” Smith recalled Adams saying.

She also admitted that in the past she had purchased crack cocaine from individuals at the Flint Hill Road address.

Other witnesses, including Adam’s ex-fiancee Kimberly Lawson, testified that Miller denied knowing about the missing package.

“Alphra was saying ‘I don’t know, I don’t know,” Lawson said.

The testimonies were first heard by Judge Howard King to determine their relevance to the case and if they should be heard by the jury. After almost three hours of testimony, King ruled that the witnesses’ statements were relevant and would be heard by the jury Wednesday afternoon because they showed “the motive of this crime was the theft of the drugs and the act of retaliation.”

He also said each statement showed “the relationship of the parties, setting, or atmosphere, of where the homicide took place and the chain of events leading up to the incident.”

Most of the witnesses stated Miller went into Lawhorn’s home briefly before running out towards a barn located behind the house. Two men, one of whom was Adams, followed Miller outside. While outside, Miller pointed a gun at Adams. Somehow the gun exchanged hands and ended up in the defendant’s possession.

“Alphra was on the defensive because Bud had the pistol and was waving it up and down,” Reginald Gibson testified.

Gibson drove Miller, Smith and Lawson to Lawhorn’s home the day of the shooting. He also testified to taking Miller to the house the night before. According to his testimony, Miller went into the barn and then came back to the car with an unknown container. Gibson said he did not know what was in the container.

Prior to the judge’s decision, attorney William Frick motioned for a mistrial, stating that the jury had already heard too much about the alleged drugs.

“The jury has heard a bunch of testimony about these drugs,” Frick said. “It’s a substantial amount of weight – we’re not talking about a dime bag – it’s 300 grams.”

King denied Frick’s motion.

On Tuesday, experts, as well as SLED and CSI agents, testified about the drugs found at the scene of the murder. Testimony from a chemist with SLED confirming that the drugs were tested and identified as crack cocaine was stricken from the record. All other testimonies were accepted.

A Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office incident report stated that on April 5, 2008 at 2:30 p.m. a neighbor called law enforcement after hearing gunshots in the area and seeing several black males run into the woods. When deputies arrived they found Miller laying on the ground with some type of wound to his left lower abdomen.

Adams was arrested and charged with murder following the incident.

Also arrested were Lawhorn, who was charged with murder, and Gibson and Lawson, both of whom were charged with being an accessory to murder. Their cases are still pending.

Lavern Jackson, the third suspect charged with murder, pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter on Monday, and was sentenced to 20 years in jail.