Boy couldn't aim rifle, plan murder, experts say


By Louise Knott / The Detroit News

    PONTIAC -- Nathaniel Abraham was not physically or mentally able to plan a killing, aim, fire and shoot Ronnie Greene Jr. with a 30-year-old rifle, two defense witnesses testified Thursday in Abraham's murder trial.
    After touring the scene of the shooting, jurors in the high-profile murder case heard testimony from a champion marksman and a child psychiatrist who questioned the prosecution's contention that Greene's death was a premeditated killing.
    "He has no capacity to see the future, to see the consequences of his actions," Birmingham psychiatrist Dr. Gerald Shiener said.
    Abraham, now 13, but 11 at the time of the killing, was excused from the courtroom during Shiener's testimony. Defense attorney Geoffrey Fieger said he didn't want Abraham to hear Shiener say, among other things, that intelligence tests showed Abraham is nearly mentally retarded.
    While Abraham says the shooting was accidental, prosecutors say he went to the field near a Pontiac party store with the intent to shoot and kill a human being, and Greene was the unfortunate victim. Prosecutors said taking jurors to the scene bolstered their theory.
    "They could actually stand in the spot where he fired his weapon and see he had a clear shot," said Oakland County Assistant Prosecutor Lisa Halushka.
    But jurors also heard testimony from a former world-champion shooter who said the condition of the gun -- its stock is broken off -- and Abraham's inexperience with weapons made it nearly impossible for him to aim and hit a target.
    "It would be a lucky shot," said Elmer Magyar, a former gun shop owner, hunting instructor and 1980 world champion skeet shooter. "You might as well be shooting with your eyes closed."
    Greene's mother, Robin Adams, was in court again Thursday, as she has been every day since the trial began.
    "I'm his mother," she said. "I have to be here every day."