Witnesses detail accused's actions, motives on night of double slaying

Dontaro (D-Low) Riddley told two friends why he killed two men outside Waldo's Bar in north Minneapolis last April: He shot the first because he was scared and the second because he didn't want to leave a witness.

Thursday's testimony by Erin McAdoo and Courtney Adams provided the most complete story so far of what may have happened the night Michael Trinity and Richard Christianson were executed and left shoeless in the alley behind the bar. The women were subpoenaed, meaning they were required to testify.

Riddley, 20, is on trial in Hennepin County District Court on four counts of first-degree murder in the killings.

According to the women, who lived together near the crime scene, Riddley showed up at their house about 11 p.m. He was with Mattea Thurman, who is a close friend of the women, and her boyfriend, Deonsae Guilmant, who is the father of her child.

Thurman walked into the bedroom shared by McAdoo and Adams and tossed in two pairs of white tennis shoes. The Pumas appeared to be a woman's. The Nike Air Forces appeared to be a man's, McAdoo testified. She appeared to be upset.

Guilmant and Riddley were in the bathroom when the three women came out of the bedroom. McAdoo said the men then went into the alley behind the house. Thurman joined them. The trio left through the alley.

McAdoo said she and Adams went outside where she found Guilmant's red and black jacket in the trash along with two other pairs of tennis shoes and a California driver's license for Michael Trinity.

About 15 minutes later Riddley returned, shaking and upset, McAdoo said. "He said, 'I just done something stupid.'" He said he killed two people.

Riddley said he thought he saw one man flash a badge or gun and mistook him for an investigator, McAdoo said. He said he "accidentally" shot him. He shot the other man because he "didn't want to get caught."

Adams told a similar story.

Then Thurman called the women from a police car saying she and Guilmant had found two dead bodies in the alley and called 911.

Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Alan Harris asked why McAdoo didn't go to the police with information. "I didn't feel like it was my position," she said.

Under cross-examination from defense lawyer Jane Imholte, Adams admitted that she and McAdoo didn't tell the story until the next day when police came to them -- and after they had talked on the phone numerous times with Thurman.

"When you know your best friend and her baby's father are in custody, that's when you tell the story?" Imholte asked. Adams said yes.

Thurman, 19, has admitted to being an accomplice after the fact and is expected to be sentenced to more than four years in prison. Guilmant was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to about 12 years. Defense lawyers say Thurman and Guilmant are trying to put the blame on Riddley.

Tuesday, Robert Schluter testified that a man in a black hoodie put a gun to his head in the alley behind Waldo's earlier that night. McAdoo told the court that Riddley wore a black hoodie the night of the killings.