Eduardo "Aaron" Leon shot David Davis in the head with a .22-caliber rifle, but he didn't mean to, his attorney told jurors as his trial opened Tuesday.
Prosecutors allege Leon, a 57-year-old Ajo resident, argued with Davis in April 2005, went into his house to get his rifle and intentionally shot and killed Davis, 54.
Defense attorney Richard Parrish, however, told jurors the two men were friends and Leon only meant to scare Davis. The two had been drinking all day and Leon was irritated that Davis wasn't fixing a Ford Bronco fast enough.
"The basic truth is, these were drunks fixing an automobile who got into an argument," Parrish said. "Mama told you alcohol and guns don't mix, and she was right."
At the end of the trial, Parrish said, jurors will have to figure out what Leon's state of mind was that day and decide whether Leon should be convicted of first-degree murder or a less-serious charge, such as manslaughter or negligent homicide.
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Prosecutor Jonathan Mosher said Davis died on a desolate spot of land north of Ajo called the Leon Ranch.
Leon and his girlfriend, Elaine Jold, lived in a primitive cinder-block house with a tin roof that had no electricity and no phone service.
On the morning of the slaying, Leon and Jold got a ride to Ajo and met Davis at a friend's trailer. Davis agreed to fix the Bronco, and they made their way back to the Leon Ranch with some friends.
Jold told jurors she stayed inside the house all day as Davis, Leon and their two friends sat outside drinking beer.
Eventually, Jold said, Leon came into the house, grabbed the loaded rifle from their bedroom and went outside.
"He said he was going to scare him," Jold said.
As she watched through an open door, Jold said, she saw Leon point the gun toward Davis and then heard three shots. Jold said when she refused Leon's demands to put the gun in its case, he walked off and hid the gun.
As Davis lay on the ground bleeding from the head, one of their friends walked off, Jold said. She, Leon and the other friend, Roland Carmello, drove to Carmello's house in Ajo.
Davis' body was found by Leon's brother, James Leon, when he came to take care of the livestock, Mosher said.
Two days later, deputies arrested a drunken Leon at Carmello's house, wearing the same bloody clothes from the day of the shooting, Mosher said.
The trial was expected to continue this morning before Judge Michael Cruikshank of Pima County Superior Court.
"The basic truth is, these were drunks fixing an automobile who got into an argument."
Richard Parrish
defense attorney
