The state has called two party-goers to testify about the evening Alexis and
Jeffrey Sosa were brutally murdered.
Both have placed Roderick Washington at co-defendant Kemar Johnston’s 2006
birthday party holding the Sosas at gunpoint as they were bound, beat and
tortured.
William Arciszewski said he saw Washington holding a rifle to the Sosas, and
that Johnston also had a firearm. He testified that a cell phone voice message
sparked the violence towards Jeffrey and Alexis when they came to Johnston’s
party.
“It was like when they showed up you could hear a pin drop,” Arciszewski said.
“They started beating them. I could hear plates breaking and everything.”
Arciszewski said that, from his hiding place in Johnston’s bathroom, he heard
a gunshot and Alexis Sosa pleading for his life and screaming as his back was
carved with knives.
“I recall very vividly,” he said. “It’s one of the things that sticks out the
most in my mind, Jeffrey Sosa begging for his life. He said, ‘I have a lot to
live for, don’t kill me.'”
Arciszewski recalled seeing the Sosas carried out of Johnston’s home through
the garage area, and also that Alexis Sosa had a black bag covering his head.
Several individuals, including Washington and co-defendants Paul Nunez and
Kenneth Lopez, left Johnston’s home with the Sosas and later returned to the
home after they’d killed Jeffrey and Alexis, Arciszewski said.
“There’s no nice way to put it,” he said. “(The Sosas) were taken out like
they were trash. They were taken out like they didn’t matter.”
Arciszewski said he was afraid that if he left Johnston’s home or called the
police he would be killed. He told the jury the Cash Feenz transformed from a
rap group into a violent lifestyle, one which he rejected.
“It’s like they began living the music they made,” he said. “To me, music is
expression. They overdid it.”
Donteavious Overmyer, Washington’s friend, said he was the first to hit Alexis
Sosa in the face, cutting his hand open and beginning the onslaught of
violence against the Sosas. He said Washington held a handgun on the Sosas, and later a
rifle.
Attorneys are now questioning co-defendant Iriana Santos.