The killing enraged a neighborhood and became part of Gregg Bernstein’s run for the office of state’s attorney, which he won over incumbent Patricia C. Jessamy. He criticized his opponent’s failure to put away convicted felons and said Pitcairn would’ve been alive had Jessamy done her job.

After the stabbing, police say Wagner ran back to his rowhouse in the 2600 block of Maryland Avenue, raced inside, leaving blood on the door handle and frame, and stuffed a fold-up knife and the victim’s iPhone inside a white tennis shoe.

Williams’ testimony directly implicates Wagner in the killing. The suspect’s lover, Lavelva Merritt, was also charged with murder but prosecutors dropped those charges in exchange for her testimony against Wagner. She pleaded guilty to her role in the robbery of Pitcairn, and she could take the stand Thursday.

Wagner’s defense attorney hammered back at Williams during cross examination, pointing out discrepancies between her testimony on the witness stand and in statements she made to homicide detectives the day of the killing and later to prosecutors.

Assistant Public Defender Gregory Fischer told jurors during his opening statement on Tuesday that Cosby is the killer, and that Merritt was with him at the time. On Wednesday, he accused Williams of lying to cover for her boyfriend of 15 years.

“Isn’t it true that it was Cosby who said he had robbed a lady?” Fischer demanded of Williams.
“No,” Williams answered.

Pressed again, Williams responded, “He didn’t do that. There are other ways of getting money.”
Under direct testimony from Assistant State’s Attorney Josh Felsen, Williams described her troubled life in an out of jail and addicted to heroin and cocaine. She lived with at least a half dozen others in the Maryland Avenue rowhouse, along with Wagner.

Williams said that on the day of the killing, she and Cosby left the house about 9 a.m. and started buying and using drugs. At one point, they were at a bus stop on North Charles and 25th streets with Wagner, whom she knows as “Ya-Ya,” and Merritt. She testified that Wagner told them “he was looking for someone to rob.”

She testified that she and Cosby returned to the house later that night even as police swarmed the neighborhood. Two people were asleep, but she saw Wagner and another person in the kitchen. She said Wagner asked how to use a credit card. She testified she saw the card and a Florida driver’s license with Pitcairn’s name on it.

“He volunteered, he told us, that he had hit somebody at a gas station and that he had hurt him real bad,” Williams testified. The prosecutor, Felsen, asked his witness whether Wagner had mentioned the victim’s race. She answered, “No.”

Shortly after Pitcairn was stabbed, police had said in charging documents that the suspects had been “hunting to rob” a “white boy.” The racial angle and allegations that the attack had been premeditated added to the community’s rage and set the case apart from other killings.

Fischer, the defense attorney, seized on Williams’ statement when he questioned her later, saying it was Cosby, not his client, who had told her he had robbed a white victim. Williams denied that as well.

Williams said that she and Cosby failed in their attempt to use Pitcairn’s credit card at the gas station because they needed his zip code. They returned to the house and got it from Pitcairn’s driver’s license. She said Wagner was reluctant to leave the house because by that time police were all over the neighborhood.

Williams testified that she had second-thoughts and pleaded with Cosby to put Pitcairn’s credit card and driver’s license in the mailbox, hoping they would be sent back to the victim. She did not know at that time he had died.

“It’s not right to keep it,” she said she told her boyfriend. “People need those.”

But Cosby went out alone and returned later with more drugs and money. The two argued on the street and Williams said she flagged down a passing police officer and pointed to Cosby, saying, “There he goes.” Later, she said she told the officer he had a stolen credit card from the earlier robbery.

Cosby ran and got away. Williams testified that she feared something bad had happened to the victim and wanted to help her boyfriend, hoping he would only get caught with the stolen card and would not be implicated in something more serious.

But Fischer said Williams was angry at not getting her cut of the money from the stolen card, and had  fingered her boyfriend to the police as retribution. Williams said Cosby could not have been involved in the killing because he was with her all night doing drugs.