BY DAN HORN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
With a bag of popcorn in one hand and a Chinese assault rifle in the other, Andre Miles says he waited in the dark to pay off an old debt. He says his opportunity finally came when he spotted two men walking toward him in the parking lot.
"I just held the gun up, and that was it," Mr. Miles said in a taped statement to police last year. "I just shot both of 'em because they both saw my face."
The jurors at Mr. Miles' murder trial in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court are expected to hear his statement today as prosecutors continue to build their case against the accused killer.
Mr. Miles is charged with aggravated murder in the Nov. 22 shooting deaths of brothers Maher Khrais and Ziad Khreis, who were gunned down in the parking lot of Mr. Khrais' Save Way convenience store in East Westwood.
In his comments to police, Mr. Miles said he did it because he owed money to a man who wanted the brothers dead. He said the man, Ahmad Fawzi Issa, agreed to forgive his debt and pay him an additional $15,000 in exchange for the killings.
"He told me that he had something for me to do to . . . work off the money that I owed him," Mr. Miles told police.
During opening statements Monday, prosecutors told jurors Mr. Issa planned the murder-for-hire scheme after Mr. Khrais' wife, Linda Khriss, asked him to arrange his death.
They said Mr. Issa hired Mr. Miles to kill Mr. Khrais and anyone else who was with him that night.
"From the time Maher and Ziad pulled into that lot, they were doomed. They didn't have a chance," assistant prosecutor Richard Gibson said. "They walked into a well-planned ambush and were brutally butchered."
A different jury convicted Mr. Issa and recommended a death sentence two weeks ago. Mrs. Khriss was found not guilty of all charges after her trial in May.
Despite Mrs. Khriss' acquittal, Mr. Miles linked her to the crime in his taped statement. He told police Mr. Issa said Mr. Khrais planned to divorce his wife and take her money.
"She wanted him to die," Mr. Miles said in his statement, which he gave about two weeks after the shootings. Mr. Issa "needed somebody to do it."
Mr. Miles told police he picked up the assault rifle that night from Mr. Issa and then waited behind a trash bin in the store parking lot. He said he bought a bag of popcorn and sat on a milk crate until the brothers arrived.
When he pointed the gun at them, he said, they began throwing money from their pockets and begged him not to shoot.
"Then I just shot," he told police. "And then I picked up the money. One of 'em was making some noise . . . and I just shot both of 'em again and ran."
Defense attorney Edward Perry told jurors most of the prosecution's evidence would "remain unchallenged." He said the defense would focus on the penalty phase of the trial, which only would occur if the jury finds Mr. Miles guilty.
He said the evidence suggests Mr. Miles, who could face the death penalty, deserves a sentence of life in prison.
The trial continues today before Judge Arthur Ney.
