Syracuse, NY -- A witness testified today she heard Dwight DeLee make a derogatory comment about homosexuals as he approached the car in which Moses Cannon was sitting last Nov. 14.

Erica Allison said she then heard a sound that she later learned was a gunshot and people started running from the scene.

Allison, however, said she never actually saw a weapon of any kind in DeLee's possession that night. She identified in court a .22-caliber rifle police recovered at the scene as belonging to her brother, David Junious.

DeLee is charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime, accused of intentionally killing Cannon because of his sexual orientation. Cannon was known to his family as a transgender person who used the name Lateisha "Tiesh" Green. Allison testified today that she and the other people who were with her outside her Seymour Street home knew about Cannon's sexual orientation. She said Cannon generally dressed as a female, but was not dressed as a woman the night of the shooting.

Allison said people were just having a good time drinking and listening to music and she never heard anyone else make any derogatory comments before DeLee said what he said as he walked toward the car in which Cannon was sitting.

Although Allison said she never saw anyone with a gun, she admitted that when she was brought to police headquarters for questioning, she indicated to detectives that DeLee was the gunman who shot Cannon.