Jury hears part of interrogation in mom murder trial
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- It was a courtroom fight Monday about the police interrogation video of Travion Smith, with defense attorneys losing the battle to keep the jury from seeing portions of it.
Jurors finally started watching the video late Monday afternoon.
In it, a Raleigh police detective is interviewing Smith. Police interrogated him for seven hours.
Smith listened to the recording from his seat in the seventh-floor courtroom where he is on trial for his life.
He is accused along with two other suspects of the murder of Melissa Huggins-Jones, who was found by her 8-year old daughter beaten and stabbed to death at their North Hills apartment in May 2013.
Prosecutors say Smith, Ronald Anthony Jr., and Sarah Redden were breaking into cars just prior to the murder when the two men climbed up to a second-floor balcony and got in to Huggins-Jones' apartment through a sliding door.
Redden allegedly acted as lookout.
Last September, Anthony pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. The plea deal spared him the death penalty.
Redden, who agreed to testify against Smith, was on the witness stand Thursday. She said while she acted as a lookout, she didn't take part in the murder.
Only about 20 minutes of the video was played before court wrapped up for the day. But the jurors have not yet heard the part where Smith is asked about the night of the crime.
That will be played tomorrow, and you can listen to it as it happens here on ABC11.com.
