WHEELING — On the second day of the murder trial of Niyajah Hales for the 2021 shooting death of Wheeling resident Michael J. Jackson, prosecutors called witnesses to the confrontation between Hales and Jackson before the shooting, and a witness to the shooting, to the stand.

Hales faces a charge of first-degree murder for the shooting of Jackson that occurred early in the morning of Jan. 28, 2021, outside of the VooDoo Lounge on Wheeling Island.

The trial is presided over by Ohio County Circuit Judge Michael Olejasz.

Jackson was shot multiple times after the bar by a suspect identified to be Hales by the Wheeling Police Department in March 2021. Jackson would die two months later at Ruby Memorial Hospital as a result of complications due to his injuries from the shooting.

Hales’ friend, Brian Steele, of New York, was identified in Wheeling and arrested by the WPD shortly after the shooting. Steele pleaded guilty to a charge of wanton endangerment with a firearm for firing a shot through the door of the Voodoo Lounge the night of Jackson’s death.

During the first day of the trial on Wednesday, surveillance footage from inside and outside the bar, as well as surveillance footage from Spunky’s Laundromat across the street from the bar, was displayed to jurors by the prosecution. In the footage, the initial confrontation that led to the shooting between Hales and Michael Jackson’s friend, Clint Lekanudos, was displayed.

The prosecution brought Lekanudos to the stand Thursday.

Ohio County Assistant Prosecutor Shawn Turak questioned Lekanudos about how he ended up at the VooDoo Lounge that night. Lekanudos said he was at the bar to see Jackson, his close friend.

In the footage from the poker room of the VooDoo Lounge before the shooting, Lekanudos approaches a woman he identified as a friend who was standing near Hales, who is sitting in the video.

Lekanudos said Hales entered the conversation between Lekanudos and his friend because he “thought they were referring to him.” As Hales spoke with them, Lekanudos noted he was “gesturing with his hands in his pocket” and believed that Hales “certainly had a gun.”

In the footage, Steele enters the poker room to resolve the conflict, with bar owner Erick Brothers then escorting the group out. Lekanudos said that he notified Brothers that Hales had a gun and that “everyone was aware” of this.

Brothers was another witness called to the stand by the state during the trial. Brothers said he had already kicked Hales and Steele out of his bar “a few weeks prior” due to a confrontation Hales entered with someone else.

Brothers said that on Jan. 28, he escorted Hales and Steele from the bar after Hales’ confrontation with Lekanudos. He said the pair left with “no additional problems,” and he had “no concern” about Hales having a gun.

Brothers said Hales and Steele returned to the bar shortly after being escorted out to retrieve Hales’ phone, which he had left behind. Brothers confirmed that bar patron Michael Biery had returned the wrong phone to Hales.

Brothers outlined that Hales, under the assumption that Lekanudos had stolen his phone, yelled at Lekanudos, “Come outside I’ll …kill you.” Brothers said Lekanudos responded to Hales with a profanity.

During Lekanudos’ testimony, he said Hales called him a “coward” while standing between the outer entrance of the VooDoo Lounge and the inner door to the bar. Lekanudos said that Hales told him that if Lekanudos came outside the bar, “he’s dead.”

As the confrontation escalated between Lekanudos, Hales and Steele in the surveillance footage, Jackson threw a beer bottle at Hales and Steele, which hit Brothers.

In his testimony, Brothers recalled “being hit with something and going down.” When he came to his senses, Brothers said he attempted to lock the door to the bar because he thought Hales and Steele were attempting to re-enter.

In his testimony, Lekanudos said that he stopped Brothers from locking the door because Jackson was outside with Hales and Steele.

Lekanudos recalled hearing “two gunshots at a minimum, maybe three” outside the bar. Jackson then reentered the bar, and Lekanudos said he carried an injured Jackson to the bar’s basement.

Lekanudos said Jackson told him, “The skinny one shot me.”

During defense attorney Kevin Neiswonger’s cross-examination of Lekanudos, Neiswonger questioned Lekanudos about the discrepancy between his and Brothers’ accounts of whether Hales had a gun during the initial confrontation.

Lekanudos responded that he “would be surprised” to hear that Brothers testified that nobody told him that he had a gun. Neiswonger then questioned whether Lekanudos would “be surprised” that Brothers did not say he escorted the pair out because Hales had a gun.

“I’m not surprised about anything,” Lekanudos responded. “Anything at all.”

The final witness the state called to the stand was Will “Willie” Norris, who was parked next to Spunky’s Laundromat on Jan. 28. Norris witnessed the conflict between Jackson, Hales and Steele as well as Hales being shot.

Norris described Jackson being in a physical confrontation with a man in an “all-gray outfit,” identified as Steele by the WPD. Norris said a man in an “all-black outfit,” identified as Hales by the WPD, was “standing back from the two.”

When Hales pulled a gun out, Norris described Jackson attempting to “block” Hales’ hand. Norris said Hales then fired a shot in the “lower part of Jackson’s body” and then another shot towards Jackson’s “back area.”

Turak then questioned Hales’ initial engagement in the fight, with Norris responding that Jackson was “not involved with the man in the black tracksuit at all.”

“Jackson was no threat to the man in black at all, he could have fled,” Norris said.

Turak then questioned whether the man in black fled after Jackson was shot, which Norris confirmed.

During Norris’ cross-examination, Neiswonger had Norris confirm that two police officers wrote down Norris’ testimony after the shooting. Neiswonger asked Norris whether he would “be surprised” to learn that in the statement he gave to both of the police officers, he said a man in gray fired shots at Jackson.

Norris responded that he would stick by his statement that a man in black shot Norris and that the reports of both officers “were not accurate.”

In her redirect, Turak had Norris confirm that the statements he gave to both officers the night of the shooting were “not handwritten or signed by Norris.”

“The only difference (between his testimony to the jury and testimony to police officers on Jan. 28) is the guy in the gray did not shoot Michael Jackson,” Norris said. “The guy in the black shot him twice.”

After the state rested its case and the jury left the courtroom for a brief recess, Neiswonger made the case to Olejasz that the charge of first-degree murder should be acquitted due to the requirements of the charge including “premeditation and malice.”

Neiswonger outlined that no physical actions occurred in the confrontation at the bar until Jackson threw the bottle.

“Within the next six seconds (after Jackson threw the bottle) there just couldn’t have been any premeditation or malice on the part of Mr. Hales,” Neiswonger said.

Olejasz denied the motion.

“Not necessarily or by any means that we know of, because of no one being in that vestibule that has given testimony, no one could say there was any attack rendered on the part of Michael Jackson directed at Mr. Hales,” Olejasz said. “Therefore, Mr. Hales could very well have acted with malice and premeditation, and I am not going to restrict the malice and premeditation to that 6-to-11-second incident.”

Neiswonger then argued that Hales acted in “self-defense or defense of others” and that the state “has the burden of providing beyond a reasonable doubt that he did not act in self-defense.”

“Our argument at this point, judge, using all the same background of the law that I used in the previous argument, is that there would be no reasonable jury based on the evidence that was heard today that would find that the state did prove or could provide beyond a reasonable doubt that Niyajah Hales did not act in self-defense,” Neiswonger said.

Turak responded that the state had “clearly met its burden” to prove that Hales did not act in self-defense.

“There’s no record here at all of any evidence that Michael Jackson was an aggressor towards Mr. Hales,” Turak said. “The evidence is that Mr. Steele did not ask for Hales’s help. Mr. Jackson is unarmed and so I would argue that the evidence is more than sufficient to give to the jury that Mr. Hales did not act in self-defense.”

Olejasz said “at this juncture” he was inclined to allow the jury to make a determination to find whether or not Hales acted in self-defense. He noted there was a “scintilla of evidence” based on a testimony from a WPD detective that was attributed to Steele that he “was in jeopardy of being disarmed.” He said the testimony portrayed that Hales was “acting lawfully to subdue Mr. Jackson from employing lethal force against Mr. Steele.”

“Depending on how the defense case comes in, that could maybe talk me out of that, so let’s just see,” Olejasz added. “Right now that is my preliminary ruling.”

Before the court was adjourned for the day, Olejasz outlined he was looking to allow the charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter to go to the jury during deliberation.

“I’m just not so sure I need more evidence in your (the defense) argument about whether or not involuntary manslaughter will go to the jury,” Olejasz said. “Everyone should be operating on the assumption that, as of now, there will be some instruction given to the jury to allow them to determine (the charge).”

The trial will continue today.