"Stay with me": Widow recounts husband's carjacking death in emotional testimony
NEWARK, N.J. -- A woman testifying in the first trial stemming from a fatal carjacking at an upscale New Jersey mall says she saw her husband get shot in the head.
Jamie Friedland was the first witness when the trial started Wednesday. She says she saw her husband, attorney Dustin Friedland, struggling with two men in the parking deck at The Mall at Short Hills in Millburn in December 2013. She says one of the men fatally shot her husband before she was ordered out of her Range Rover and the men drove off in it.
Friedland testified in the murder trial of Basim Henry, of South Orange.
Henry was arrested in Pennsylvania after the shooting. Prosecutors say he was among four men involved in the carjacking, acting as a getaway driver.
Wiping away tears, Friedland said she was sitting in the car when she heard her husband talking to some men outside, reports CBS New York.
She said at first she thought it was a friendly interaction, but then she saw a struggle.
“I saw the taller man who was behind the driver’s side door. I saw him put the gun to Dustin’s head. I heard bang bang,” Friedland testified. “And then the window shattered of the car. And then, like in slow motion it played out.”
She said the gunman ordered her out of the car at gunpoint and the men drove off. She then went to check on her husband.
“I just knew, I knew when I turned around, I knew what I was going to see,” she said. “I turned around and I saw Dustin laying there in a pool of blood and I ran over to him.”
The woman described her attempt to save her husband.
“I leaned down, I was on the floor and I was covered in his blood and he was covered in his blood and I held my hand to his head and I am screaming, I was screaming ‘Stay with me, stay with me,’” Friedland said.
She said her husband’s eyes were following her and she believes he heard her. The man later died.
All four suspects have pleaded not guilty. Henry’s lawyer said he did not pull the trigger and “the facts” will prove his innocence.
