HAMILTON — Donald Downard went to the parking lot of a subsidized housing complex in Hamilton on July 9 to buy crack cocaine.

        But before he could leave with the cocaine, he was shot twice in the head and bled to death.

        “This was a drug deal gone bad,” Assistant Prosecutor Pat Moeller told the jury Tuesday at the murder trial of Lewis Patterson in Butler County Common Pleas Court.

        Mr. Patterson, 26, of Hamilton, thought Mr. Downard and his two friends were going to leave the parking lot in the 1100 block of Beckett Street without paying for the cocaine, Mr. Moeller said in his opening statement.

        Mr. Patterson ran into an apartment, returned with a handgun and fired four shots at the pickup that Mr. Downard and two other men were riding in, Mr. Moeller said.

        He fled to a motel in Oxford and was arrested three days later, Mr. Moeller said.

        He said one of the men in the pickup had served as the middleman in the drug deal. The third man in the truck got away with the cocaine and has not been identified or found, he said, Mr. Moeller said.

        Mr. Downard had no cocaine in his system at the time of his death, Mr. Moeller said.

        The Hamilton man, 34, was the father of twin boys and operated a paving and concrete business.

        Defense attorney Drew Engel chose not to make an opening statement Tuesday.

        He reserved the right to present his statement after the prosecution has rested its case.

        The trial is expected to run through Friday.

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