Car alarm installer Charles Montes was almost done for the day. It was just after 7 p.m., his boss was locking up, and he was finishing up his last installation for the day.
All of a sudden, Montes felt a gun in his back.
The gunman announced he and his boss "were gonna get jacked and don't do nothing stupid," Montes testified Wednesday in Pima County Superior Court.
Moments later, a man lay dead, felled by a bullet fired by Montes, and three accomplices were on their way to jail.
Wednesday was the first day in the trial of Carlos Yanez Peyron, who is charged with first-degree murder and several counts of aggravated assault and armed robbery.
Peyron, 21, is charged with murder in the death of his friend Noah Lopez, 18. He was charged under a law that makes someone culpable for murder if another dies during the commission of certain felonies, even if he did not kill the person.
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Anthony Peyron, Peyron's 20-year-old brother, and Toney Stith, 27, will be tried separately on the same charges later.
Montes told jurors he believes it was Stith who forced him at gunpoint into M&M Customs, 3040 N. Stone Ave. The Peyron brothers and Lopez forced his boss, Anthony Mendoza, inside, too, Montes said.
As they got near the office door, Montes said he pushed Mendoza inside the office, knowing Mendoza had a shotgun there.
Mendoza was able to slam the door shut, leaving him and the four gunmen outside, Montes said.
The gunmen screamed at Mendoza to come out, Montes said, and threatened to kill him if Mendoza didn't do as they said.
As they yelled, Montes said Mendoza opened the door and fired one round from the shotgun.
One of the men, later identified as Lopez, fled out the back door, and Montes said he grabbed his 9 mm handgun from a toolbox and took off after him.
When he got outside, Lopez turned around and fired two shots at him, missing him both times, Montes said.
He fired twice at Lopez, who was wearing a white shirt and had closely cropped hair, Montes said. The man kept running.
When he got back inside inside, Montes said he saw Mendoza had the other three men disarmed and face-down on the floor.
Two of the men were complaining they'd been hurt by the shotgun blast, Montes said.
They called 911 at that point.
Deputy Pima County Attorney Mark Diebolt told jurors Lopez was found nearby, dead from a 9 mm gunshot wound.
Defense attorney Dan Cooper told jurors his client may be guilty of trying to rob the place, but he's not guilty of murder because Lopez didn't die during the robbery.
Witnesses will testify there was at least a minute pause between two flurries of gunshots, despite the fact Mendoza and Montes say there was just one flurry of gunshots, Cooper said.
Cooper said the evidence will show Montes fired three shots, not two, Lopez was wearing a black shirt and his gun was still inside his pocket.
He also suggested Lopez wasn't shot in the fenced yard of the shop, but 150 feet away on East Delano Street, where his body was found.
Judge Edgar Acuña is presiding over the trial.
Contact reporter Kim Smith at 573-4241 or kimsmith@azstarnet.com
