CLEVELAND — They were once accused in the same murders, but Andrew Keener and Joseph McAlpin were pitted against each other as McAlpin's murder trial continued Friday.
McAlpin could face the death penalty if convicted of the April 2017 murders of Michael and Trina Kuznik. The couple were found shot to death along with their dog inside the Mr. Cars dealership they owned.
Keener cut a deal with prosecutors, agreeing to testify against McAlpin in exchage for a maximum of 15 1/2 years in prison. Keener told jurors he went along with McAlpin and his brother believing they were going to steal cars and sell them.
But in court McAlpin, who's representing himself at trial, tried painting Keener as a drug addicted liar who agreed to implicate others to save himself.
"I didn't lie about implicating nothing about nobody," said Keener. "I didn't just pick you off the side of the Earth and put in this," he told McAlpin.
But McAlpin showed jurors a video that proved the 25 year old was walking in front of a phone store at the time he testified he was sitting in the car waiting for McAlpin.
He also questioned Keener's claims that he initially lied to investigators because he feared for his family's safety.
"How could you possibly be worried about your family's well-being, being up for 30 straight days using meth?" asked McAlpin after Keener testified he was high and hadn't slept in weeks when police arrested him.
Prosecutors painted Keener as a marked man behind bars because of his cooperation in the case. Keener told jurors he would have testified against McAlpin even if he didn't get a deal from prosecutors, calling the accused murder "cruel" and "devastating."
"I need to do what's right, and I need to make sure that everybody that lost their families get justice for them," said Keener.
Prosecutors are expected to wrap-up their case sometime next week. Then McAlpin is expected to start calling witnesses in his defense.
