Jurors in the Marco Glaser murder trial watched a second video Friday, this one of Guadalupe "Lupita" de la Cruz's last moments.
At 2:06:10 a.m., July 8, 2007, a Dodge Stratus enters the east-side entrance of a Broadway business parking lot. Halfway across the lot, the brake lights go on, once, then twice, before the car continues to the west-side exit and stops.
Suddenly, three bright flashes go off and two figures are seen running, barely illuminated by the parking lot lights.
Once last flash is seen before the car drives off rapidly.
According to Deputy Pima County Attorneys Kellie Johnson and Victoria Otto, the two figures were de la Cruz and Glaser; the four bright flashes the gunshots Glaser fired into the 23-year-old woman and her 25-year-old boyfriend, Brian Brown.
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The prosecutors are trying to convince jurors Glaser, 31, shot his friends to death 20 minutes or so after the three left a Speedway nightclub. On Thursday, they showed the trio leaving the nightclub hand-in-hand.
Defense attorney Richard Parrish maintains someone else shot the couple after his client left the pair. He warned the jurors Thursday they'll have "no idea" what they'll be looking at when they see the parking-lot video. He also questioned the state's timeline of events.
Tucson police Detective Kathleen Kelly acknowledged there have been times when the time stamp on surveillance videos are incorrect, but she testified that the time stamp on that particular video is correct.
Glaser is facing two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The prosecutors allege that after leaving de la Cruz's body in the parking lot, he drove Brown's body back to Brown's house, leaving it inside the Stratus.
The aggravated-assault charges stem from allegations Glaser chased three of Brown's friends away from Brown's house with a gun after the slaying, but before he abandoned the car and body.
If Glaser is convicted, the prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty.
The state's theory is that Glaser killed Brown as he sat in the front passenger seat of the Stratus and then shot de la Cruz in the right side as she was sitting in the driver's seat. They say she suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the back of the head after being chased 22 feet from the car.
Judge Charles Sabalos of Pima County Superior Court is presiding over the trial.
Contact reporter Kim Smith at 573-4241 or kimsmith@azstarnet.com
