NEWARK, N.J., March 24 (UPI) -- Alexander Alfaro says he never intended to kill a woman he allegedly attacked with a machete outside an elementary school in Newark, N.J., in 2007.
Alfaro's murder trial in the death of three college students got under way Wednesday in Essex County Courthouse in Newark, the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger reported.
Alfaro, 20, said his half-brother told him to bring the machete to the elementary school the night of the Aug. 4, 2007, incident and that they intended to rob the victims, who just happened to be in the area.
"He (the half-brother, Rodolfo Godinez) looks at me. He tells me, you know what you have to do, or else you know what's going to happen," Alfaro said in a recorded statement he made to police after the incident. "I have to take out the machete and cut her a couple of times, but I didn't try to kill her."
Alfaro said when Godinez saw that he didn't intended to kill the victim he ordered another man to shoot her.
"When my brother saw I didn't try to kill her, he tells Jose to shoot her," Alfaro said, referring to Jose Carranza who was also charged in the killings. "So he shoots the first girl. Then the second guy. Then the other guy. Then we walk up the stairs. Then Jose shoots the other girl."
Killed were Iofemi Hightower and Dashon Harvey, 20, and Terrance Aeriel, 18. Terrance's sister, Natasha, then 19, was shot but survived.
