jail, Ramos cheated on Adams with Erasmus Watson
(Raz). Subsequently, Adams and Ramos resumed their relationship after Adams
was released from jail. Ramos testified that Adams was upset with Appellant
because Appellant continued to be friends with Raz.
      Gutierrez testified that, on the day of the offense, as he and Appellant were
walking “to the Stop-N-Go to get some Cokes,” they saw Adams and Ramos driving
around together. Gutierrez testified that he told Appellant, “There’s Dominique
right there,” and that Appellant replied, “I got to dump him.”
      Similarly, Ramos testified that she and Adams noticed Appellant and
Gutierrez. When they got closer to Appellant and Gutierrez, and as the car came to
a stop, Appellant made a motion with his hand that indicated that he wanted Adams
to roll down his window. Adams then asked Appellant, “What’s up?” Gutierrez
testified that Adams also asked Appellant “if he still want[ed] that beef s--t,”
meaning that Adams and Appellant were in disagreement about something. In
response, Appellant then told Adams that they, Adams and Ramos, had “better leave
or it was going to end bad for both of [them].” Adams did not have a gun on his
person or in the car. In addition, Gutierrez testified that he never saw a gun in
Adams’s hand.
      Ramos testified that, at that point, Adams parked the car and that, as soon as
Adams stepped one foot out of the car, Appellant began to shoot; he shot Adams.
After Appellant shot Adams, Appellant and Gutierrez ran away from the scene and
to Appellant’s house. Luisa Florez, the forensic pathologist who performed the
autopsy on Adams’s body, testified that Adams had two gunshot wounds, one to the
                                          2
left leg and one to the back. Florez determined that the cause of death was the
gunshot wound to the back.
      At trial, when the State rested its case-in-chief, Appellant moved for a directed
verdict, which the trial court overruled. Appellant testified in his own defense. 