Murder out of jealousy? What the woman in a love triangle saw & heard

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A calm response to chaos and killing brought suspicion on a Fresno man for the murder of his romantic rival.

"He was walking like he was normal, like nothing happened," said witness Tammy Massey of Vance Sams.

Sams walked away from the scene two years ago, but he's standing trial for murder now. Sherry Young's face is the one we've blurred out in a photo she took with her former husband, Ray Fisher. We're not showing her face out of safety concerns. Her boyfriend, Vance Sams, is accused of killing Fisher in a fit of jealousy.

Young says Sams was suspicious for several months and seemed to threaten violence.

"What do you recall about Mr. Sams saying he would beat ray if he caught the two of you together having sex?" prosecutor Brian Hutchins asked Sherry Young.

"That they would get into an altercation," Young replied.

So when Fisher called his ex on the morning of July 4, 2014, and Sams got on the phone, Young says she knew there'd be trouble.

"I said 'Oh s***'," she testified.

"Why did you say 'Oh s***?'" Hutchins asked.

"Because I just knew that it was going to be an altercation," Young said.

Just down the street from Sams' apartment, Sherry Young's father, Cardell, was playing host to Ray Fisher. Minutes after Fisher got on the phone with Sams, Cardell Young heard a popping sound outside his house. He told Action News he walked out and saw Fisher collapsed, and Sams walking away.

"Cardell had asked him 'What did he do?'" said Tammy Massey. "He said 'It was just a firecracker.' Cardell asked him again 'What did you do, man?' He said 'It was just a firecracker' and he just walked right on."

It was the Fourth of July and one witness said Sams had smoke coming from his back pocket as he walked away, but it made a bulge that looked more like a gun than a firecracker.

Sherry Young says in the months she lived with Sams, she never knew him to have a handgun, just a hunting rifle. And even though she says Fisher never had any enemies other than Sams, she admitted her new boyfriend was worried about her old husband for reasons outside of the bedroom too.

"Isn't one of the reasons why he didn't want you to be around ray is because he was violent?" asked defense attorney Alan DeOcampo.

"Yes sir," Young replied.

DeOcampo says nobody saw Sams shoot Fisher, and one witness described seeing someone else running from the scene. Sams is facing life in prison if he's convicted.