Updated: Sunday, 07 Aug 2011, 1:47 PM CDT
Published : Sunday, 07 Aug 2011, 1:47 PM CDT
As the trial for a man accused of killing a Lake Elmo man trying to sell a car on Craigslist begins, the defense is not denying that the defendant pulled the trigger, but rather is claiming the shooting was an accident.
In the opening arguments, the defense attorney admitted 20-year-old Dao Xiong killed 33-year-old Ty Lor, but said the shooting was neither premeditated nor intentional.
The attorney said the gun was meant to be used for intimidation but it went off accidentally.
The victim’s wife, Katie Lor, was the first witness to take the stand. She described moving to Minnesota from Connecticut to have a better life for their family. Her husband spent long days at a friend’s garage, fixing up cars -- and she saw him off on the morning of Sept. 9.
Later that afternoon, detectives arrived at the family’s St. Paul home to tell her several witnesses described seeing Lor lying on the side of 55th Street in Lake Elmo, suffering a single gunshot wound to the stomach. He later died at a hospital.
Xiong was charged with first- and second-degree murder in connection with the fatal shooting after police said the Oakdale man had contacted Lor through Craigslist about buying Lor’s 2003 Nissan sports car.
Prosecutors claim that was just a pretense for stealing and stripping the car.
The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension used cell phone records to find Xiong, since the last calls to Lor came from a TracFone registered to Xiong. Investigators found security video of Xiong buying the phone at a Target and matched it to his driver’s license picture.
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