Jury hears Ballentine testimony during Mendez trial
TOPEKA (KSNT) - The trial of Francisco Mendez, which began earlier this week, heard extensive testimony from Corey Ballentine, the friend of Washburn football player Dwane Simmons who was killed three years ago.
Mendez stands accused of murdering Simmons outside of a house party in April of 2019. The prosecution team called Ballentine to testify on Thursday what his account of the shooting was. He spent over an hour on the stand where he walked the jury through the shooting and how he escaped. He testified that Mendez was present just before the shooting occurred.
"They stopped and the driver asked do y'all smoke?" Ballentine said.
Ballentine is now a pro football player and told the story of how a white car approached him and his friends outside of a party near Washburn University.
"Yeah, they pulled off I want to say maybe 20 feet and they stopped and then they started shooting," Ballentine said.
"I got shot in my butt cheek, my right butt cheek and then it hit me in my pelvic bone," Ballentine said.
The shooting resulted in Dwane's death and wounded Ballentine who told the jury how he was able to escape by running to a nearby friend's house.
"The door is never locked so I had a feeling I would be able to get in and I couldn't run anymore anyway," Ballentine said. "I was starting to get lightheaded and I couldn't like use my legs."
Ballentine later pulled Mendez out of a photo lineup, identifying him as the driver of the white car that drove by him that night. Charles Kitt of the prosecution asked Ballentine during the trial to point to the person and describe what he is wearing.
"He's right there wearing a blue shirt, long-sleeved shirt," Ballentine said.
The defense pushed Ballentine on this: Defense Attorney Kevin Shepherd pointed out that Ballentine wasn't 100% sure about what he saw that night.
"I said I'm about 80 to 85 percent sure that this looks like the driver," Ballentine said.
The jury also heard testimony from other witnesses Thursday who say that Mendez was in the car that night. The trial is expected to pick up again Friday morning.