Prosecutors showed a video of Hykeem Tucker, accused of murder, being interrogated by police Tuesday. It was the fourth day of his murder trial.
TRENTON - A Trenton man accused in the shooting death of a Mercer County Corrections Officer three years ago told police he was at the scene the night of the shooting but that he never pulled the trigger or even saw the killing.
A 35-minute video showing Hykeem Tucker being interrogated by police after his arrest three years ago was shown during the fourth day of the murder trial Tuesday.
Tucker, 28, and Maurice Skillman, 28, are accused of shooting to death Mercer County Corrections Officer Carl Batie in November, 2012 when Batie was at a party at the Baldassari Regency Banquet Hall. Skillman was arrested in December of the same year and Tucker was arrested a month later.
Prosecutors claim the two men arrived at the banquet hall during the party that night and stood outside, firing 22 shots at the balcony where around 50 people stood. Batie was the only person killed in the shooting.
In the video, which prosecutors entered as evidence Tuesday, Tucker is seen being questioned by Trenton Police Det. Scott Peterson and Lt. Chris Doyle shortly after his arrest.
Tucker told Peterson that he and some friends - whom he didn't name - went to the banquet hall that night. He was inside the hall when he heard gunfire but never saw the shooting, Tucker said on the video.
"Everybody started fighting," he told Peterson, adding that people were running from the hall after the shooting. He claimed he went home and was never involved in the killing.
"I didn't kill anyone. I didn't pull the trigger," Tucker says in the video.
But when Peterson asks Tucker to describe what he was doing leading up to the shooting, Tucker says people "don't remember what they do every day," and denies the accusations against him.
"I have you on video. I know all of your steps," Peterson says in the tape, referencing surveillance video of the banquet hall the night of the shooting. He claims Tucker went to the banquet hall, "got spooked," left and then came back.
"Who were you guys shooting at?" Peterson asks in the tape but is met with silence from Tucker.
It isn't until the end of the interrogation tape that Peterson and Doyle bring up Skillman, the suspect who has been accused of firing the shots. Authorities have said that Tucker was standing next to Skillman when the gun was fired.
"The bottom line is that you were with him," Peterson says at the end of the tape.
Anna Merriman may be reached at amerriman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @anna_merriman Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.