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Trial in Suni Bell's murder continues
FOX 13's Kylie Jones has the latest after day two of the trial for five men charged in the murder of a 4-year-old girl.
TAMPA - The trial for five men charged in the murder of a four-year-old girl in Tampa continued on Wednesday.
Suni Bell, 4, was shot and killed while riding in the car with her mother and uncle in August 2021.
PREVIOUS: Suni Bell murder: Trial of 5 suspects in 4-year-old girl's shooting death begins
The backstory:
Prosecutors say the child was riding in the backseat of a car driving down Hillsborough Ave. on Aug. 22, 2021, when three cars pulled up and fired about 40 shots into the vehicle.
Andrew Thompson, James Denson, Jaylen Bedward, Quadarious Hammond, and Zvante Sampson are charged with first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder.
The state says Suni and her family were coming back from a celebration of life for a family member who had died, and they were headed to a get-together following the event that night in August 2021. Prosecutors say Suni's uncle, Willy Brown, was driving the car and her mother, Mary Harrison, was in the passenger's seat.
They couldn't find the location of the get-together, so they pulled off into a field to figure out the directions. Prosecutors say Sampson, Bedward, Denson, Thompson and Hammond were among a group that was hanging out at a nearby Chevron gas station, and they started watching the car that Suni's family was in.
The group was seen gathering outside the gas station on surveillance footage.
Eventually, her family decided to head home, because it was getting late.
"At that point in time, these men were arming themselves, they were gathering together, they were pointing, they were getting in cars and they were taking off to hunt them down," Terry said.
Prosecutors say some of the men masked their faces and several grabbed guns, before getting into several cars and following the car that Suni and her family were in. Surveillance footage appears to show the cars following their car and ambushing them with about 40 bullets.
"They don't know who is in that car, or they think they may know who is in that car, but they don't know Willy Brown," Terry said. "They don't know Mary Harrison, and they don't know Suni Bell. Neither of those three have any relationship whatsoever with any of these men."
Suni's mother and uncle survived, but the child later died at the hospital.
On Tuesday, Suni's mother shared emotional testimony about the moments she tried to escape the gunfire with her daughter in the backseat of the car.
"I had jumped over from the passenger's seat to the driver's seat, and I was trying to get us to that, but it was too late," Suni's mom, Mary Harrison said.
On Wednesday, crime scene investigators and detectives testified.
One investigator walked through surveillance video that allegedly showed the suspects' cars.
What they're saying:
"In this particular video, I noted all the vehicles as they pass through the intersection to include vehicles that aren't even involved," an investigator said.
He pointed out flashes in the surveillance video, saying they were different from the light reflecting off of streetlights.
"A muzzle flash of a weapon being fired," the investigator told the prosecutor. "'Is this the only muzzle flash that you were able to see when you went frame by frame in the video?' No."
The other side:
Defense attorneys for each of the five men questioned investigators about the surveillance video.
"Were you able to determine any other actions or movements by the driver?" the defense asked an investigator. "'No'."
An investigator also said he wasn't able to see the occupants of the suspect cars.
"Certainly, even if you're testifying that it is consistent with a muzzle flash, you're not able to determine, if in fact it was a muzzle flash, what type of firearm discharged that firearm, correct?" the defense asked an investigator. "'That's correct'."
The defense argues there's no evidence that directly links any of the five men to the first-degree, pre-meditated murder of Suni.
RELATED: Report on killing of 4-year-old Suni Bell says child cried out for 'mommy' before she died
What's next:
The trial is expected to continue on Thursday.
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The Source: Information for this story was gathered by FOX 13's Kylie Jones and previous FOX 13 news reports.