Three men were planning drug sales not an armed robbery that turned deadly, two of the men testified at their murder trial Thursday.
Maurice Burgess is accused of enlisting two others to rob his friend of money and drugs inside an Atlantic City hotel Dec. 21, 2015.
DeVonte Molley, 23, wound up fatally shot.
Now Burgess, Sterling Spence and Charles Wynn are on trial for felony murder.
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The state claims text messages show how Burgess urged Wynn and Spence to come steal money and drugs from Room 859 of the Madison Hotel.
“All these conversations are basically daily drug activity,” Burgess testified Thursday, after the state rested in the case.
He said a reference to "flames" the state claims was about guns referred to drugs.
They were unarmed, according to Wynn.
"One is enough if you do it right," was not about a gun either, Burgess insisted.
Instead, he said he was explaining that one ounce of heroin, if mixed right, can make two to three bricks of heroin.
Wynn said he had just started dealing heroin, since his normal drug was marijuana, which he also used himself.
"People told me, 'Don't smoke all your profit away,'" he explained. "'Sell something you don't use.'"
There were discussions about taking "work," which both sides agreed is a word used for drugs, that was left in a draw by a guy from Trenton, who he told them may be coming back to the room.
Molley was asleep when Wynn and Spence were let in by Burgess, who said he left to make a drug deal.
He said he did hear what sounded like a gunshot while he was at the elevator, but did not go to investigate.
Wynn said he was in the bedroom looking in a nightstand when he hear arguing and then a shot.
He said he looked out to see Spence and Molley getting up and running out, and he ran as well.
Spence, who was the alleged shooter, is expected to take the stand when trial resumes Friday morning.
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