By John McCann

jmccann@heraldsun.com; 419-6601

DURHAM -- Jurors today are expected to get the case and start working toward a verdict in the retrial of a man linked to a November 2004 shooting at Foxfire Apartments in north Durham.

On Thursday they learned the defendant gave a fake name to the police officer who interviewed him after the altercation.

Thaddius R. Wright, 27, is being tried a second time for assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and first-degree burglary. He is accused of shooting Rueben Garnett Jr. A jury in 2006 found Wright guilty of the assault and burglary charges, but he appealed the ruling based on racial bias during the jury-selection process.

Jerred D. Thompson and Jarrad L. Bishop were convicted as a result of the crimes at Foxfire Apartments, and Durham police Cpl. Keith Johnson mentioned those two convicted men when he took the witness stand and read a statement from a lengthy interview with Wright.

Johnson said Wright told him his name was Lee Alexander Hawkins and that he was in town from Houston. The officer later learned both the defendant's real name and that he'd lived in Durham for some time.

As Johnson testified, the word "gang" had barely left his lips when defense lawyer Woodrena Baker-Harrell quickly and forcefully objected. She successfully lobbied Superior Court Judge Cressie Thigpen Jr. to have jurors disregard that language.

Johnson continued reading the defendant's statement, which indicated on the night of the shooting he was riding in the back seat of a car smoking marijuana with Bishop and Thomas, who talked about their plot to rough-up somebody. Wright said he told them he didn't want any part of it. But Wright said he was told his size would come in handy when it was time to kick in the door on the unit at Foxfire Apartments, where the three men eventually arrived and took guns and gloves from the trunk of their car.

During a hearing after the judge sent the jurors home for the evening, Assistant District Attorney Stormy Ellis pointed out that Wright in his statement was trying to distance himself from the crime by talking about only two guns. But jurors this week have seen three guns presented as evidence. Ellis in her opening argument told jurors this case comes down to three guys, three guns and one plan.

Johnson's reading of the statement revealed the defendant kicked a door at the apartment unit, but he didn't do much damage and got scared and ran back to the car.

Then gunshots pierced the air, and Bishop and Thomas hustled back to the car boasting about having gotten who they'd come to get, according to the statement. When all three were in the car, they took off and wound up leading police on a high-speed chase, Johnson read.