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Two men will go to trial accused of unintentionally killing a Tabor football player.
Police found Brandon Brown on a McPherson city street Sept. 16. Prosecutors say he had been beaten at a party at a nearby home. He died later at the hospital.
Friends and family members of Alton Franklin and DeQuinte Flournoy, defendants, and the victim crowded into the courtroom Thursday. It got a little tense at times between the two groups as the state presented it's case for why the suspects should be tried for second-degree murder.
Taajon Richardson testified in the preliminary hearing that he was at a party in McPherson the night Brown died. He said Brown and two other men got into a fight over a broken window.
"Pretty much just arguing with them at the door, they stepped out and we shut the door in their faces," Richardson said.
He told the court it started when some people tried to get Brown out of the house. He saw Franklin hit Brown.
"Alton had hit the taller Tabor student twice, he had fallen over," Richardson said.
Then he said Flournoy held Brown down while Franklin hit him again.
"He was pushing his head down as the guy on the ground was trying to get up he hit him two more times," Richardson said.
Defense attorneys argued it was self-defense.
"The defendants were using force to try to remove them from the premises," said David Harger, Franklin's attorney. "Those people were armed. They then, as we know from police, stabbed the door with a knife."
Richardson said Brown was acting drunk when the fight started. The McPherson County Medical Examiner testified earlier that Brown's blood alcohol level was .30, well above the legal limit.
Both Franklin and Flournoy pled not guilty. The judge will set a trial date later this month.