Jury deliberations are underway in a Lexington murder trial where the suspect admitted to shooting and killing the victim.

Woody LaPierre, 31, is charged with murder in connection with the death of a 25-year-old Nigerian man, Adetokunbo “Tomi” Okunoye. LaPierre’s trial began Monday and wrapped up Wednesday after closing statements were delivered shortly after 3 p.m.

Earlier Wednesday, LaPierre took the stand to share his account of what happened the night Okunoye was killed. He told the jury he pulled the trigger and killed Okunoye but did not intend to inflict any harm the evening of the shooting.

“I didn’t think the night was going to end the way it ended,” LaPierre said during his testimony.

Defense: Suspect regrets actions, asks for lesser charge

LaPierre testified that he didn’t know there was a bullet in the chamber and he did not load the gun the night of the shooting but had done so the previous night. He added if he was given a chance to change his actions the night Okunoye was shot, he would check the gun to see if it was loaded.

“Woody shot and killed Adetokunbo Okunoye, you heard him say it himself,” said LaPierre’s attorney Parker Mincy during his closing statement. “He’s not hiding from you. He’s not hiding from the world. He’s not hiding from what he did. He’s not hiding from the fact that for the rest of his life, he has the weight of another human being that’s going to live in him, that’s going to haunt him.”

Fayette Circuit Judge Diane Minnifield’s instructions gave the jury a list of possible outcomes for LaPierre. They can find him:

• Guilty of murder

• Guilty of first-degree manslaughter

• Guilty of second-degree manslaughter

• Guilty of reckless homicide

• Not-guilty

Mincy argued that reckless homicide was the more appropriate charge and LaPierre’s actions don’t match up with the language associated with the other charges.

“We could have a system where when somebody says, ‘I regret,’ ‘I’m sorry,’ ‘I wouldn’t do it again,’ ‘I’ve done something bad,’ we could have a system where we say throw it out, don’t care, don’t want to hear from you. Go ahead and shut this door until nobody cares about you at all,” Mincy said. “Luckily we don’t have that system, and luckily it doesn’t just matter what happened but it matters what people were thinking when that thing happened.”

LaPierre’s testimony painted Okunoye as the main aggressor in the dispute and he tried to scare off Okunoye multiple times before firing the fatal shot from a gun he didn’t know was loaded. LaPierre said Okunoye was bigger than him and afraid he could inflict serious physical injury on him.

“He acted in the only way he thought he could. He acted on a thought he had to, those were his words,” Mincy said. “He didn’t want to. He didn’t intend to go there to hurt somebody. He tried to back away. He tried to show the firearm instead of pointing the firearm.”

Prosecutors say murder is the reasonable charge

Amanda Morgan with the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office argued that murder is the charge best suited for LaPierre’s offense.

“It was not a reasonable reaction to what was happening, it was murder,” Morgan said.

In her closing statement, Morgan pointed out the discrepancies in LaPierre’s account when he was interviewed by a detective after his arrest compared to his testimony on the stand. One specific discrepancy is whether Okunoye walked or ran towards LaPierre after he was armed with the gun just before the shooting.

LaPierre testified Okunoye was charging toward him, but other witnesses claimed Okunoye was not as aggressive as LaPierre alleged.

“When you go back and watch that interview, he says the ‘word’ walk 20 times. He says the word ‘run’ zero,” Morgan said. “The only time we heard about Tomi running was today when he was on the witness stand.”

Morgan said the inconsistencies in LaPierre’s story make him hard to believe.

“The defense is asking you to disregard all of that, but more importantly the defense is asking you to disregard your common sense,” Morgan said. “It’s only after hearing all the other witnesses testify do you hear this version of Tomi running full speed ahead, trying to take the gun from 23 feet away.”

LaPierre’s testimony

LaPierre’s testimony included his account of events leading up to the shooting. LaPierre said he met his sister at the party and ran into a group of friends. He and one of the friends left a party around 2:30 a.m. to get some food and didn’t return until after the party was over.

When LaPierre returned to the venue he was confronted by Okunoye, who grabbed his arm, LaPierre said. Okunoye was frustrated with being unable to locate his friend to leave, witnesses testified on Tuesday.

LaPierre broke loose from Okunoye’s grip and returned to his vehicle to grab the gun, LaPierre testified. The gun was loaded the previous night when he decided to sleep in his car in downtown Lexington after a night of drinking, he testified.

Sometime after the initial confrontation, Okunoye began charging towards LaPierre. LaPierre said he drew the gun from his pocket but didn’t initially point it toward Okunoye. Okunoye kept charging despite pleas from LaPierre to stop, so LaPierre aimed the gun towards Okunoye and fired, LaPierre testified.

LaPierre was approximately 15 feet away from Okunoye when he fired the singular fatal shot, he testified. He repeated he thought the gun was empty and only pulled the trigger to scare Okunoye.

“When he fell to the ground I knew he was hit and I was nervous and scared,” LaPierre said.

LaPierre was arrested at his girlfriend’s house later that morning. He said he was cooperative with the detective who spoke to him and said he was being led into a fight and didn’t know the gun was loaded.