Driver in Laylah Petersen killing testifies

Moments after he heard several gunshots, and two men he had just dropped off got back into his car, Paul Farr wondered what had just happened.

But when his passengers didn't immediately explain where they had been, Farr didn't ask questions.

"I just turned up the music and started driving," he testified Wednesday, at the trial of one of those men now charged in the 2014 reckless homicide of 5-year-old Laylah Petersen.

Carl Barrett Jr., 21, is one of three men charged in the case, in which police say Barrett and Arlis Gordon shot up a house where they mistakenly thought different people resided.

Farr is the third, but like Gordon he entered into a plea deal with prosecutors. Part of Farr's arrangement was to testify against Barrett.

Clothed in a dress shirt and tie, Farr was composed and polite but offered only minimal answers to questions.

He said after the gunshots, he, his cousin Divonte Forbes, Gordon and Barrett all returned to a house near N. 47th and W. Lloyd streets to play video games and smoke marijuana. Barrett and Gordon took out guns he hadn't seen before and put them on a table.

When he saw on the news that a little girl had been killed in the same general area where he had dropped and picked up his friends, Farr testified, he wondered if they might be involved.

But he didn't go to police, and when they first began questioning him five and seven months later, he lied and misled them, he admitted Wednesday, because he was scared and didn't want Barrett, his close friend, to get in trouble.

But now, he said though sniffles, he knows telling the truth is

"Somebody got killed, and it was a kid. It could have been anyone's kid. It could have been my daughter,"  Farr said.

Farr's testimony came the day after Forbes told jurors his role in the matter. He said he gave a green camouflage-patterned 9mm to Gordon on Nov. 6, 2014, after Gordon had repeatedly called asking to borrow a gun.

Farr testified that Gordon was upset because earlier that day, a jury had acquitted a man of killing someone close to Gordon.

On cross-examination, Barrett's attorney, Christopher Hartley, asked if it was normal for people to call him looking for guns and for him to hook them up with his cousin Forbes. Farr said yes, he might know someone with a gun.

Hartley also got Farr to admit he'd been smoking marijuana blunts most of the day on Nov. 6, 2014.

Hartley did not give an opening statement and called Milwaukee police Detective Katherine Spano as his only witness. He asked her about her Oct. 14, 2015, interview with Forbes, specifically his description of clothing worn by Gordon and Barrett the night of the homicide.

Forbes said Gordon was wearing a black hoodie and black pants, while Barrett "was wearing the same he always wears: dark blue Adidas jacket with tan cargo pants," Spano testified, referring to the reports.

Closing arguments are scheduled for Thursday morning and then the case will go to the jury.

Ashley Luthern of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this article.