NEWARK -- As Jamie Schare Friedland waited for her 30-year-old husband Dustin in her father-in-law's Range Rover just before 9 p.m. on Dec. 15, 2013, she thought the muffled talking she heard outside the vehicle was just her husband making friends with someone, she told an Essex County jury on Wednesday.

Instead, she turned around to see her husband struggling with two men inside the parking deck at The Mall at Short Hills in Millburn.

The man on the passenger's side of the car was shorter, the one on the driver's side taller, she said.

"I saw the taller man who was beside the driver's side door -- I saw him put the gun to Dustin's head," Friedland said, making the sound of gunshots and the SUV's glass breaking.

After the taller of the two men leaned in and ordered her out of the Range Rover, they sped off with the vehicle, she said.

"I knew, I just knew when I turned around what I was going to see," Friedland said, choking back tears. "I saw Dustin lying in a pool of blood."

Jamie Friedland's testimony was the first presented Wednesday following opening arguments in the trial of Basim Henry, one of four men charged in the carjacking and the murder of her husband, before Superior Court Judge Michael L. Ravin.

Henry, 36, of South Orange, is charged with murder, felony murder, carjacking, conspiracy and weapons offenses.

Friedland said the couple, who lived in Hoboken, had gone to the mall that night to buy her a new laptop and cellphone from the Apple store, and had dinner to celebrate their wedding anniversary and a new condominium they'd purchased.

Assistant Prosecutor Ralph Amirata showed her an enlarged photo from one of the mall's surveillance cameras and asked her what it depicted. "Us, walking through the mall, holding hands," she said, smiling sadly.

But later the same night that image was captured, Friedland found herself beside her bleeding husband, his eyes following her as he gasped for air, she testified.

"I leaned down ... on the floor, covered in his blood and he was covered in his blood," she said. "I'm screaming, 'Stay with me, stay with me."

Friedland said emergency personnel separated her from her husband after they arrived on scene. He was later pronounced dead at Morristown Memorial Hospital.

Henry, who has a prior robbery conviction and was on probation at the time of Dustin Friedland's slaying, was arrested less than a week after the carjacking by a federal fugitive task force in Easton, Pa.

He was later indicted in September 2014, along with Karif Ford, Kevin Roberts and Hanif Thompson. Thompson was identified as the man who shot Friedland, according to Assistant Prosecutor Brian C. Matthews, who is trying the case with Amirata.

Roberts, Ford and Thompson will be tried separately, according to the Prosecutor's Office.

In the state's opening arguments, Matthews told the jury that while Henry -- the alleged getaway driver -- wasn't the one who pulled the trigger or physically took control of the Range Rover, he was guilty of the murder, carjacking and weapons charges as an accomplice and participant in the conspiracy.

After Henry's capture in Pennsylvania, Matthews said, he gave a statement to investigators largely admitting his involvement in the crime.

"What corroborates his statement are the four phones taken from the four individuals who went to the Short Hills mall ... to steal a Range Rover," he said, explaining the phones' location data put all four men at the place authorities say they hid the SUV.

Location data for two of the phones, he said, also put their owners at the mall at the time of the carjacking.

Henry's attorney, Michael Rubas, acknowledged in his opening arguments that Jamie Friedland's testimony would be "gutwrenching," but they hadn't gathered in the courtroom "to let emotions get the best of us."

What Matthews had told them were arguments, not facts, Rubas said.

"I submit to you, ladies and gentlemen, the facts are going to show something different," he said.

Rubas declined to cross-examine Friedland. As she left the courtroom with family, she could be heard sobbing in the courthouse hallway.

Friedland is currently pursuing a lawsuit against the mall's owners, who her lawyer has alleged could have prevented Dustin Friedland's death with better security practices.

Surveillance footage obtained by Jamie Friedland's lawyer, Bruce Nagel, allegedly shows the suspects' SUV stalking another Range Rover in the mall's parking lots just days before the fatal carjacking, and later racing out of the parking structure the night of the shooting.

The trial is scheduled to resume at 9:30 a.m. Thursday.

Thomas Moriarty may be reached at tmoriarty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ThomasDMoriarty. Find NJ.com on Facebook.