Graham’s fate left to jury

CATSKILL — The jury began deliberations Thursday in the murder trial of Carlos Graham.

Graham, 32, of Catskill, stands accused of second-degree murder, a class A-1 felony. Prosecutors alleged he planned to kill his former neighbor and romantic rival, Brandyn Dayne Foster, for money, marijuana and jewelry on Jan. 27, 2017.

Graham pleaded not guilty to the charges in December. Graham’s attorney argued his actions were in self-defense. Foster allegedly became enraged and violent when he found out his ex-girlfriend, Sade Knox, was having a tryst with Graham. Graham’s trial started Feb. 4.

Before deliberations began around 1 p.m. Thursday, defense attorney Shane Zoni and Greene County District Attorney Joseph Stanzione presented their final arguments to the eight-woman, four-man jury. Two men selected as alternate jurors were separated from the rest of the group before deliberations began and were dismissed.

Standing in the middle of the courtroom, Zoni delivered his final arguments deliberately. He called on the jurors to consider their doubts about the prosecution’s theory of what happened.

“My client, Carlos Graham, did not murder Brandyn Foster,” Zoni said. “He did not plan to kill Brandyn Foster. The only thing he planned in the early morning hours of Jan. 27 was to survive.”

Stanzione balked at Graham’s account of the night of Foster’s death and referred to Graham as a cold-blooded, calculated killer. He asked jurors to use common sense when weighing the evidence against Graham’s version of events, which he called a fairytale.

“[Graham] is cunning, manipulative and a liar,” Stanzione told the jurors.

At times, Graham shook his head at the defense table, appearing to disagree with Stanzione’s account.

Little evidence, apart from Graham’s testimony, shows what happened before he shot and entombed Foster in 9 inches of concrete in a crawl space below a fish tank in Sade Knox’s home at 124 Tool House Road.

Graham testified to the defense Wednesday that Foster came to Knox’s house and yelling at and beating her. Graham accidentally shot Foster twice, he said — once with a .357 Ruger magnum revolver and a second time with a 10-gauge sawed-off shotgun in his other hand — after Foster pointed a shotgun at him.

“I don’t know how it happened,” Graham said Wednesday. “It wasn’t intentional — I was just trying to keep myself from being harmed.”

During his testimony, Graham recalled he wanted to get rid of anything to do with the crime scene.

DNA and fingerprint evidence were not recovered from the guns or Foster’s body, police investigators testified this week.

Foster’s time of death could not be determined because of a liquid substance that was poured over him before he was encased in concrete, said forensic pathologist Dr. Bernard Ng. Ng performed Foster’s autopsy at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady after state police found him Feb. 6, 2018.

Foster, a rapper with a fan base, is the son of revered jazz musician Al Foster, and father to 10-year-old Jazzon. Foster had no criminal past or prior acts of violence and regularly helped friends in need, Stanzione argued.

Graham was married with two children, ages 2 and 3 at the time of the alleged murder. He had recently broken up with his longtime girlfriend, Melanie Jackson, and moved out of his home at 128 Tool House Road.

Graham has a criminal history, including convictions for third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance in Columbia County, petty larceny in Athens and attempted petty larceny in Catskill.

Both sides believe Foster walked from his home at 126 Tool House Road — the home he shared with Knox, for two years before the couple split up around November 2016 — to Knox’s new residence at 124 Tool House Road between the night of Jan. 26 and early-morning hours of Jan. 27, 2017.

From there, the defense and prosecution’s accounts differ.

Graham claimed Foster came over with a 12-gauge shotgun to confront his ex-girlfriend about her affair with Graham and became violent.

Meanwhile, Graham and his friend, Ashton Adams, who were already at the house, hid in Knox’s bedroom closet. Graham did not call 911 because it would take between 10 and 15 minutes before police would arrive to the house, he said.

Graham did not come out of the closet to aid Knox because he wanted to avoid a “shootout at the O.K. Corral,” Zoni said.

The prosecution said Knox texted Foster to lure him next door to 124 Tool House Road. Graham allegedly waited until Foster was comfortable in Knox’s bedroom.

Foster wasn’t wearing pants or shoes when Graham shot him with the .357 Ruger magnum revolver and shotgun, Stanzione said. After the shooting, Graham hit Foster over the head with the revolver, breaking the gun in half at the handle, Stanzione said.

Graham testified when Foster entered Knox’s bedroom, he jumped out of the closet and the magnum accidentally went off. Graham’s shotgun fired while he was in the air, but he said could not remember making the conscious decision to fire the gun.

Before reaching the floor, Graham said he struck Foster with the pistol.

Stanzione said he could not believe all that occurred while Graham was “flying through the air.”

“How ridiculous is that?” Stanzione added. “This guy reads too many comic books.”

Graham, a home construction contractor, said he disposed of Foster’s body by wrapping it in garbage bags. He then removed the carpet, padding and a section of wood flooring stained with Foster’s blood.

After cutting a hole in the floor, Graham said he put Foster’s body in head first and poured concrete over top while mixing in the guns and ammunition he used to shoot Foster.

Graham hid the body because he didn’t think anyone would believe the killing was self-defense, Zoni said.

While it was distasteful to bury Foster in concrete, Zoni added, it does not make Graham a murderer.

Graham hid Graham’s white Cadillac Escalade in the parking lot of the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. In the following days, Knox sent text messages to Foster’s mother, Bonnie Steinberg, saying Foster had to get out of town to avoid some bad people, Stanzione said, adding the murder showed signs of premeditation.

“This wasn’t just a murder,” Stanzione said. “This was an execution.”

The final blow of the pistol striking Foster’s forehead showed this was personal for Graham, Stanzione told jurors.

At about 5 p.m. Jan. 26, Graham, Knox and Adams went to 8 Hotel Lane in Stuyvesant in Columbia County so Graham could buy the revolver from drug ring leader Bryce Hallback, Stanzione said. Hallback is connected to multiple shootings in Hudson in 2017, Hudson police said.

Hallback testified Feb. 8 she gave Graham the revolver because he was afraid of Foster. Graham allegedly told Hallback he could shoot Foster and take weed and belongings from his home.

Days later, when Hallback asked Graham for the gun back, she said he told her she did not want it back because he “beat the n****r with it.”

Graham testified Wednesday the gun was for Adams, who was afraid of Foster.

The jury did not reach a verdict as of press time Thursday. Deliberations will continue 9 a.m. Friday.