Day three of Marine murder retrial focuses on 2nd St. robbery tie

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) — Lexington Police say Jonathan Price was shot and killed in the Austin City Saloon parking lot five years ago while being robbed.

His wife was also shot, but survived.

The accused killer, Dawan Mulazim, is being tried for the murder for a second time since the jury in his first trial couldn’t reach a verdict on the charge.

Mulazim is not only on trial for Price’s murder but also for a robbery a month after the shooting on 2nd Street in Lexington.

That crime was the focus of Tuesday’s testimony that prosecutors say links Mulazim to Price’s death.

We heard from the victim of that 2nd Street robber in a video deposition filmed last month because the victim, Robert Marquis, wouldn’t be here for the trial.

He talks about how two men approached him and a friend when they were heading to their cars.

“They had something they put over our face. They yelled at us to get on the ground that this was for real or something of that nature. Then I saw the weapon drawn on myself and didn’t know whether it was real or not, so just did what he asked us to do,” says victim Robert Marquis.

His wallet, cell phone and keys were taken.

Marquis identified Quincinio Canada in a lineup as one of the two men who robbed him.

He says he didn’t get a good look at the other guy, who police believe was Mulazim.

From witness testimony from the apartment property manager where Mulazim and his wife lived at the time, we learn about Mulazim’s wife, Sholanda, cleaning out her husband’s car that summer after the robbery and throwing away a trash bag full of stuff cleaned out from his car.

The manager and maintenance head of the apartment complex decided to retrieve the bag from the dumpster and in it they found identifications, keys and credit cards, so they called police.

The police sergeant who responded also testified Tuesday about what was in the bag.

The victim of the 2nd Street robbery, Robert Marquis’ credit cards, pilot license and items in the other victim’s name.

He also talked about going around searching other dumpsters in the area.

In one, he says he found a Yankees baseball cap and a box of opened ammunition inside the hat.

“The New York Yankees emblem, the colors it was white and really dark and it looked very, not brand new, but recently new. So it just struck me as why is it in the trash,” says Sergeant Matthew Silver with Lexington Police.

The Uankees hat is significant because in the last trial, police said they believed the hat is the same one Mulazim was wearing when he was caught on surveillance video minutes before the shooting at Austin City Saloon.

The trial is set to resume Wednesday morning at 8:30.