A jury of seven men and five women were seated Monday morning, prior to the aggravated battery trial of defendant Billy D. Little.

Little, 34, of Columbia City, is accused of the June 4, 2002, shooting of Brian Smith at the Good Times Bar in the 200 block of South Buffalo Street, Warsaw.

The case against Little is being retried because he was found guilty of both aggravated battery and possession of a firearm by a felon during one trial in 2003. According to state law, a person cannot be put on trial for a felony and being a felon with a weapon at the same time. Little requested and was granted a new trial.

The case is being heard before Kosciusko County Circuit Court Judge Rex Reed, the same judge who presided over Little's first trial in 2003. Reed instructed the jurors how to ask their own questions of witnesses, a process Reed said was new for him. There were no questions from jury members Monday afternoon.

Kosciusko County prosecutor Steven Hearn called four witnesses to the stand Monday. Andrew Grossnickle, Syracuse, is Little's attorney.

Warsaw police officer Robert Long was the first witness. On a drawing board behind the witness stand, he sketched a layout of the Good Times establishment.

He used the sketch to show jurors what he did after arriving on the scene.

Long said he secured the scene, placing an officer at each entrance.

He also took several photographs, which were presented to the jury as evidence.

Also called to the witness stand was Winona Lake police officer Ryan Andrew. Andrew was parked in the lot south of Good Times, east of Buffalo Street, watching for a woman with a suspended driver's license to return to her vehicle parked in a lot west of Buffalo Street.

Andrew said he heard what he thought were firecrackers and saw two figures running across Buffalo Street to a car around 1:21 a.m. The two men got in the car and left, heading south on Buffalo Street.

A call then came over Andrew's radio reporting a shooting at Good Times, he said.

Two bar patrons, Troy Reiff and Laura Kats, described what they saw and heard at the Good Times bar that morning.

Both said shortly after they arrived, the bartender, Taylor Robertson, refused to serve more alcohol to two men standing at the corner of the bar. One was taller than the other; the short one was wearing a light-colored or white shirt, the witnesses said.

The two men went down a hallway ramp and closed the interior door, which automatically locks.

Reiff said he advised Robertson that the door had shut.

Brian Smith, a part-time Good Times bartender patronizing the bar, and another customer, headed down the hallway to reopen the door.

Robertson, who had to come out from behind the bar, followed Smith at a short distance.

When Smith reached the door and opened it, the witnesses reported hearing a "bang."

Both witnesses held their right hands to their upper left chest to show the jury the way Smith held his chest the night of the shooting.

Both Reiff and Kats testified Smith said, "The guy in the white shirt shot me."

Smith suffered a single gunshot wound to the chest near the left arm.

Later that morning, at the Warsaw Police Department, both witnesses identified Billy Little and his brother, Robert Little, as the two men at Good Times. They also both told police that Billy Little had changed shirts and that he was now wearing a dark blue, button-up work shirt.

Kats also said she knew Billy Little by name because the two were in elementary school together.

On cross-examination Grossnickle established that Kats failed to identify Billy Little in a photo lineup during her deposition of Jan. 30, 2003.

Testimony continues today. [[In-content Ad]]