Witness describes day of killing in parking lot

Opening day testimony in the execution-style slaying of a 22-year-old man at times felt more like a guided tour of Spokane’s drug underworld.

“Some of the witnesses that you will hear from, you may find their lifestyles disturbing,” Deputy Spokane County Prosecutor Deborah King warned jurors Wednesday. “But that’s who was there at the time.”

Clifford M. Meyers, a 37-year-old with a lengthy criminal history, is standing trial in Spokane County Superior Court on a first-degree murder charge in connection with the June 13, 2005, shooting death of 22-year-old Elijah Bishop.

Bishop was shot in the head at close range and found dead leaning out of a small pickup in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart in the shopping center at Wellesley Avenue and Belt Street, which is adjacent to Shadle Park High School.

Defense attorney Tim Trageser did not offer any opening arguments, choosing instead to wait until the prosecution rested its case.

King said she expects Trageser will argue at some point that the shooting was either an accident or was done in self-defense.

For her first witness, King called Angela Rose Cook, who was living at 1814 W. Mission Ave. with her boyfriend, Brandon Carter, and another man, Sonny Wiggins, on the day the shooting took place.

Cook said the situation started at about 3 a.m. when Wiggins realized that someone had broken into his Ford Mustang that was parked near Ely and Upriver Drive in Spokane Valley. Stolen from the car was a leather jacket, CDs and a car stereo.

At some point early that same morning, Clifford Meyers, who has 14 previous felony convictions including first-degree statutory rape, burglary and illegal possession of a firearm, joined Cook, Carter, Wiggins and another woman at the Mission Avenue home.

Trageser asked Cook who among the group had been using methamphetamine at the time. “Probably all of us,” she responded.

Within about 90 minutes, the group loaded into two cars and drove to a shop on Freya Street north of Wellesley Avenue where they knew stolen items could be fenced for cash.

Cook said she went along believing they would find her former boyfriend, who they suspected had committed the car burglary. “I wanted to see (the former boyfriend) get his ass whooped,” she testified.

Trageser then asked: “So how big was the posse out looking for the perpetrator? Do you ordinarily go out that early in the morning in the hopes of seeing someone get their ass beat?”

Cook responded by saying that she went because Wiggins wanted her to go along. “At that time in my life, yeah, it was worth it,” she said.

When the group arrived at the shop, they found Bishop, who was an acquaintance of Cook’s for several years. Bishop was standing next to a small pickup that had a truck bed full of stolen tools, she said.

According to court records, Wiggins saw Bishop wearing his watch and confronted him about it. Cook said Bishop then admitted to breaking into Wiggins’ car and stealing the items.

“Elijah told us that he did it. He said to Sonny Wiggins, ‘Yes. I broke into your vehicle,’ ” Cook said.

Cook said Bishop told Wiggins that he stole the items because he was a “drug fiend” trying to support his habit. Cook said Bishop returned the stolen watch to Wiggins and then Meyers and several other people at the scene started taking the stolen tools from Bishop’s truck.

“Nobody got upset at all. When (Bishop) told Sonny that he sold his stuff … everybody was cool with that because we were all drug addicts,” Cook said.

Most of the group then got back into Cook’s Thunderbird and Wiggins’ Mustang and followed Bishop to the Wal-Mart parking lot where he had arranged for yet another person to return the car stereo stolen from Wiggins’ car. But once at the parking lot, something went wrong.

Cook, who testified that she has been using methamphetamine for the past four years, said she saw Meyers exit from Wiggins’ Mustang and get into the truck with Bishop. When they started to drive away, Bishop’s truck almost crashed into another vehicle in the parking lot when Cook said she heard what sounded like a gunshot.

“As I began to take a right, Brandon told me that Cliff had just shot Elijah,” Cook said. Meyers “jumped out of the (pickup). He ran to the black Mustang. He had a gun.

“It was fast but it looked like a cartoon,” she continued, describing how she watched Meyers flee. “It wasn’t real.”