One prosecution witness was escorted into court, crying, with her right hand constantly covering her eyes.Another prosecution witness initially refused to take the stand. She later testified under order by Summit County Common Pleas Judge Elinore Marsh Stormer.The judge also warned the gallery — packed with spectators Tuesday for the aggravated murder trial of Elohim El-Jones — not to have any contact with potential witnesses.“I assure you that if you do,” Stormer said, standing at the bench as the afternoon session began, “you will be arrested.”It was under this tense backdrop — with Stormer issuing repeated admonishments to witnesses and spectators alike — that the prosecution’s case against El-Jones began.El-Jones, 26, was taken into custody by a law enforcement task force in early January after 17 months on the lam. He is accused of fatally shooting Michael L. Kirksey, 31, on the night of Aug. 15, 2009.At one point during the manhunt for El-Jones, known by the nickname “Profit,” he was on the “Dangerous Dozen” list of men wanted by the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force.Among the facts not in question, prosecutors established Kirksey was shot multiple times as he sat on a couch in front of a living room window at his aunt’s Akron apartment on Ericsson Avenue.The shooter, according to crime scene photos by Akron police, fired from outside that window.The day before, prosecutors also firmly established, Kirksey and El-Jones had an altercation at Chapel Hill Mall.Also not in dispute: Kirksey, his aunt and others, including at least three children, were watching a Browns preseason game when the shots were fired between 9:30 and 10 p.m. Kirksey’s aunt, Nerita Riley, was the prosecution’s first witness. She quietly told the jury that Kirksey bolted from the couch, tried to go up a stairway immediately to his right and collapsed, bleeding profusely.Riley was hit in the knee by the volley of shots she described as a rapid series of pops from outside. She told the jury the shooting started immediately after a young woman, Jennette Bland, who was an acquaintance of a young man she knew as “Profit,” entered the apartment under the guise of getting tissues from the bathroom.“She ran out the door and slammed it back behind her,” Riley said.She said Bland knew Kirksey was sitting on the couch in front of the window.Riley then told the jury it was a setup, because when Bland left the apartment, she had no tissues.After Riley’s testimony, the day turned chaotic.In opening statements, prosecutors had told the jury there would be a witness who would testify that the defendant was in a parking lot close to the crime scene, faking that he had been shot and asking a woman to drive him to a hospital for help.“He’s claiming: ‘I’m shot, I need a ride, I need to get out of here!’ ” Summit County Assistant Prosecutor Daniel Sallerson told the jury.But when prosecutors tried to get their witness to testify about the alleged parking lot plea, she refused to take the stand.The witness, Monica Jones, 39, who lived in an apartment close to the shooting scene, later met with Stormer in her chambers and was ordered to testify.When Jones finally did, she repeatedly told the prosecution’s lead counsel, Brian LoPrinzi, that she could not remember anything that happened that day.She told LoPrinzi that, despite evidence apparently showing she picked out El-Jones in a police photo array, she could not identify him as he sat next to his attorney, Donald “Doc” Walker, at the trial table.Stormer finally declared Jones a hostile witness as LoPrinzi repeatedly tried to elicit facts from her about what happened that day.When LoPrinzi attempted to get Jones to pick out El-Jones in the crowded courtroom, she said she couldn’t.“I don’t know this man. There’s nothing I know about this man,” Jones said as LoPrinzi showed her the police photo array with the defendant’s picture in it.Later, LoPrinzi produced a witness, Durell “Smokey” Bradley, who testified that she saw El-Jones near a woman’s car in the parking lot.“He was standing on the side of the car, holding his side and saying someone shot him,” Bradley told the jury.Bradley also said she saw El-Jones get out of that car at a Tallmadge Road intersection, because she had followed it there over her concern that he was seriously hurt.Bradley testified that moments after El-Jones got out of the car, he assured her he was fine and ran away.Bland’s testimony followed. Bland was the witness who had to be escorted — by a police detective — into the courtroom.After a 30-minute delay, Bland also met with Stormer in her chambers and was ordered to testify.When she finally did take the stand, she told the jury over and over that she was afraid for her life. At one point she described herself as a “bundle of nerves.” She kept a hand over her eyes throughout her testimony, which lasted more than an hour.She did point to El-Jones and said he was the man she knew as “Profit.”The trial resumes this morning.Ed Meyer can be reached at 330-996-3784 or emeyer@thebeaconjournal.com.