CINCINNATI — A man charged for his alleged participation in a murder-for-higher plot took the stand Thursday to testify against his co-defendant, who is accused of being the mastermind behind multiple killings in the winter of 2021.
Hamilton County deputies walked 34-year-old Mario Gordon down from the jail and into Judge Jody Luebbers' courtroom on the third day of the trial. Incarcerated while awaiting his own trial, Gordon was wearing handcuffs and a black and white jumpsuit.
Prosecutors called Gordon as a witness to detail what they say happened on February 16, 2021. He willingly agreed to testify, Hamilton County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Allison Oswall said.
"Did I promise you anything? Did Mr. Goodyear promise you anything in exchange for your testimony today?" she asked Gordon, who replied with, "No."
Gordon told the jury Carl Godfrey, who is currently on trial, enlisted him and two others, including a then 14-year-old, to rob a man at an apartment in Westwood. Gordon said Godfrey told him he had a "move" for him to handle.
"What did you think you were going to do with "Shiesty" when you met him?" Oswall asked Gordon.
"Thought we were going to rob him," he said.
Gordon said he had only known Godfrey for less than a week, having first met him the night before a group trip to Miami, Florida. It was on that trip when Godfrey told Gordon he would have some "moves" for him when they returned to Cincinnati, Gordon said.
On Feb. 16, Gordon said he and his alleged accomplices met Godfrey in an apartment hallway in English Woods to discuss the details, of which he said he still believed to be a robbery, and that Godfrey asked if everyone had guns.
"Why was it important that the three of you have guns?" Oswall asked Gordon.
"I don't know," he replied. "You've got to have guns to commit a crime like that."
Prosecutors argue Godfrey never wanted it to be a robbery, but instead a targeted murder. Godfrey hired the three men to shoot and kill Aaron Whitfield near Felicity Court and Montana, they said.
Gordon said he never met the person he thought he was supposed to rob that day, but as he and the others were walking along the Westwood apartment, somebody got out of the backseat of parked SUV and asked if one of them was "2-4". Gordon said that because the man knew who one of them was, the man must have been the target.
Things escalated quickly when the SUV started to leave and one of the other men enlisted by Godfrey started to shoot at it, Gordon said. He decided to start firing too, he said.
"Why did you do that?" Oswall asked.
"I can't tell you why I did it. They started shooting and I guess I gotta start shooting too. I didn't want to be the oddball out, like a brother didn't shoot," Gordon said. "We all three started shooting."
Gordon said the three of them kept shooting at the SUV until their guns ran out of bullets.
Police body camera footage shows Whitfield was wounded, but survived the shooting, as well as Maliaya Freeman. Her boyfriend Deontay Otis was killed, prosecutors said.
Oswall asked Gordon what the mood in the car was like as he and the others left the scene.
"I'm thinking that was a robbery gone wrong," he said. "They was talking. I was kind of nervous."
"Why were you nervous?" Oswall asked.
"Now common sense tells me this wasn't supposed to be a robbery so now I'm nervous and I don't know these people and they're sitting behind me and I don't have no more bullets to defend myself," Gordon said.
The defense jumped at the opportunity to cross-examine Gordon. In opening statements two days prior, Brian Goldberg, one of Godfrey's attorneys, described Gordon as someone who is "a career snitch" and a "liar." Goldberg added Gordon wasn't trying to do the right thing by testifying, but was only trying to get a better deal from prosecutors.
"It's your expectation, your hope that by being here today you'll be able to walk out of prison one day, is that a fair statement?" Goldberg asked.
"Yes sir," he replied.
Goldberg continued his efforts to undermine Gordon's credibility as a witness, arguing he wasn't truthful with detectives after his arrest. He said, at the time, Gordon claimed he didn't know a C.J., the name by which he said he knew Godfrey.
"But now you're asking the jury to believe you three years after the fact, is that correct?" Goldberg asked.
"Yes sir," Gordon replied.
Gordon said he didn't call 911 after the shooting because, even though it would have been the right thing to do, he wasn't caught then and he wanted it to stay that way.
"So if you hadn't been caught, you wouldn't be here today testifying?" Goldberg asked to which Gordon replied, "No."
The defense tried to hammer their cross-examination home by stressing Godfrey was never at the shooting and that Gordon never heard him mention anything other than a robbery.
During the prosecution's questioning, Gordon repeatedly claimed that after the meeting at the English Woods apartment, all of the instructions that day came from one of the other alleged accomplices who had only been communicating with Godfrey via text.
The trial continues Friday at 9:30 a.m.
