A Miami-Dade police detective testified Wednesday against a 19-year-old man accused of robbing him of his gold jewelry, then shooting him.
Willie Barney shot Det. Wislyn Joseph in the chest outside a church in Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood on Sept. 22, 2012, according to prosecutors.
"He didn't go there armed with a Bible -- he went armed with a .45-caliber automatic weapon, and he went there to commit a crime," said prosecutor Dawn Kulick, "So while the defendant is pointing the gun at him and demanding his property, Detective Joseph begins to comply. He starts to remove a gold bracelet off of his wrist, but he wasn't moving fast enough for the defendant. The defendant took a couple steps back -- still only a few feet away from Wislyn Joseph, still having the gun raised at Wislyn Joseph's chest -- and he pulled the trigger."
Prosecutors played a recording of a 911 call Joseph made.
"Please dial a 3:15. I've been shot," Joseph told the 911 dispatcher.
"He administered his hand in the trigger and looked at me and kept churning his lips, and automatically, I realized he's applying pressure to the trigger," Joseph testified.
Barney and two others robbed Joseph of his gold bracelet and his gold chain his late grandmother left him, said prosecutors.
"Once I heard the round, I made a maneuver like this," Joseph said, demonstrating as he leaned back while standing.
Joseph administered his own first aid, then called in a description of the suspects. Investigators have linked them to several other violent gold chain robberies.
"He is a 19-year-old kid that was where he was supposed to be. He was home," said defense attorney Robert Barrar.