DOUGLAS COUNTY, GA (CBS ATLANTA) -
Testimony resumed Thursday morning in the murder trial of a young man accused of beating a teenager to death in Douglas County.
Tracen Franklin was 19 years old on Nov. 6, 2010, the night he and three others crashed a high school house party where prosecutors say they fatally beat and stomped Bobby Tillman, 18.
The first people on the stand were the couple who allowed teens Ariana and Alexis Thompson to host the party. They described how the party got out of control. Three girls began fighting.
"We were trying to break up the fight and I told her (Ariana Thompson) to go inside. I'm gonna handle it and we were trying to break them up. My daughter was trying to break them up because there was a pregnant girl and I was trying to pull her in the house. Then the next thing I know there's another fight over there and over there and there were three fights going on at the same time," mom Tracy Sanders said.
Sanders' fiance, Felix Crowder, said he called police twice. "No one was listening to us about leaving, about getting in their cars and going home," Crowder said.
Alexis Thompson testified she saw another fight begin, with four teens attacking one person.
"They were punching him, kicking him, hitting him, beating him like he killed somebody's mom or something," Alexis Thompson said.
Assistant District Attorney Bonnie Smith said, "How into this did you realize it was Bobby?"
"When he hit the ground," Alexis Thompson said.
Tillman's best friend, Emmanuel Rawls, testified he saw a similar scene.
"I seen a group of guys jumping Bobby, but at that time, I didn't know who it was," Rawls said.
Rawls testified that police told everyone to get on the ground. He wiped away tears, recalling sitting in the driveway, realizing who it was.
"He was just laying there. I tried calling his name and he didn't answer me," Rawls said.
Thompson broke down on the stand as she recalled she and her cousin trying to help Tillman when the beating ended.
"He started foaming at the mouth. He's like, 'Alexis.' That's when we tried to get him up. I said, 'Bobby.' That's when he started shaking and I didn't know what to do," Alexis Thompson said.
Ariana Thompson, who had invited Tillman to the party and testified she had a crush on him, had been inside the house.
"My sister actually ran up to me, like, 'Ariana,' and was like, 'Bobby, Bobby, Bobby.' I was in shock. I didn't know what was going on," Ariana Thompson said.
Copyright 2012 WGCL-TV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.
Tracen Franklin
Bobby Tillman
