Deliberations Resume In Newark Schoolyard Slayings Trial
NEWARK, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Jury deliberations resumed Monday at the trial of a man accused of killing three college-bound friends in a New Jersey schoolyard.
Alexander Alfaro faces 17 counts including murder, felony murder and robbery.
The panel on Friday finished their first full day of deliberations by rehearing the testimony of the lone survivor of the 2007 attack.
The woman had described how six suspects circled four friends and demanded that they lie on the ground and give up their valuables.
The prosecution claims Alfaro played a part in the robbery that preceded the killings in Newark.
Alfaro testified he watched the robbery but didn't take part. He said he was coerced by his half-brother to bring a machete to the scene.
Dashon Harvey, Terrance Aeriel and Iofemi Hightower were lined up against a wall behind Newark's Mount Vernon School and shot in the back of the head in August 2007.
Alfaro admitted in a taped statement that he slashed one of the victims with a machete before all three were shot execution-style, but said he was coerced into giving a false confession when he was arrested two weeks after the murders.
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