Article: Suspect says he wasn't at scene of 2008 murder.(City/Region)(The trial starts for a man accused in a Springfield shooting death)

Byline: Karen McCowan The Register-Guard

Michael Wayne Wesley was not even present when his co-defendant killed Wendy Jo Whitaker in a Sept. 3, 2008, drive-by shooting in Springfield, Wesley's defense attorney told a jury Wednesday during opening statements in his murder trial.

That co-defendant, Ronald Joshua "Ronny" Smith, fired the bullet that passed through Whitaker's car door and pierced her heart, prosecutor Mike Pugh agreed. But he said Wesley was there and participated in the murder by firing a shotgun toward Whitaker's car as she stopped to pick up her boyfriend, Jesse Ward Anderson, the intended target in the shooting.

Smith, 28, ...

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