Murder defendant claims he was there, but he didn't do it

LUIS SOTO, the Kensington man on trial for the fatal shooting of a bystander during a large street fight in April 2013, yesterday took the witness stand in his own defense and admitted to a lot of things.

He was out there, near the corner of Lee and Somerset streets, when Amanda Martinez, 21, was gunned down, Soto, 27, testified.

He had been a drug dealer who spent two and a half years in state prison and had gotten out on parole three months before the killing, he told the Common Pleas jury of 10 women and two men.

Soto, who is also being tried for shooting three men during the incident, even told the jury that he had two cellphones - not for drug dealing - but for each of his girlfriends.

What he didn't admit to, was being the gunman. In fact, Soto told the court that he was not involved in the fight, that he didn't even see who was doing the shooting, that he didn't own a gun and therefore, he could not have shot any of the four victims.

"I just came home from up state, and I wasn't trying to get involved in none of that," Soto said in a calm voice while being questioned by his defense attorney, Jack McMahon.

Soto's story may be tough for the jurors to buy. They previously heard from two witnesses who placed Soto at the scene with a gun that he fired into the crowd. One witness said Soto was one of two shooters; the other witness said he was the lone shooter.

The jury also heard from Homicide Detective David Schmidt, who testified yesterday that the evidence led to Soto as the killer and not a 21-year-old man who was questioned by police that day and cleared when police verified that he was working miles away when the violence erupted.

The trial is scheduled to resume Monday with closing arguments from McMahon and Assistant District Attorney Carlos Vega.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Soto would receive an automatic life sentence without the possibility of parole.