/*Marquis Sutton*/ was shot to death last September, before he could finish his senior season on the football field.
Terrance Lee claimed Sutton died in a game of Russian roulette. But police say Lee was the only one pulling the trigger, and Sutton was not playing.
Terrance Lee kept his head down as his cousin and police detectives described the day in September when he's accused of killing a friend.
We're not allowed to identify his cousin, but the young man was inside the northwest Fresno apartment when it all went down. He says he saw Lee point a gun at Marquis Sutton.
"I think he clicked it like two or three times," the witness said. "I can't remember."
"You said he clicked it?" asked prosecutor Steve Wright.
"I can't remember how many times," the witness said.
"What do you mean he clicked it?" Wright asked. "Pulled the trigger?"
"Mmmm hmmm," the witness said.
Investigators say one shot was fired, hitting Sutton in the neck. Emergency crews rushed him to a hospital, but doctors couldn't save the 18-year-old Edison senior who dreamed of playing football at USC.
Sutton was four days from taking the field against Clovis West, but he had an ankle injury. Police say Lee told another witness he knew about the injury.
"Lee indicated to him that he was going to, he made reference to seeing how fast he could make him run with the bad ankle," said Fresno police detective Andre Benson.
Investigators say two people dragged Sutton's body outside and tried to think of excuses -- like blaming a drive-by shooting. When detectives interviewed Lee, he told them it happened during a game of Russian roulette. But even if it was a game to Lee, officers say Sutton wasn't playing along. In fact, after the first trigger pull, he was trying to leave.
"The Russian roulette I know, you play with a gun and you point the gun at yourself and not a defenseless kid who's standing, trying to get out," Benson said.
The defense claims it was all an accident and they're trying to negotiate a plea deal with prosecutors. But Thursday, a judge ruled there's enough evidence to put Lee on trial for murder.