BARTOW – In a 2016 phone call from the Polk County Jail, which jurors heard Tuesday, murder defendant Andre Warner said he wasn't concerned about gunshot residue on his hands because he wasn't tested for that.

“No, they didn't take no residue test,” he said, according to a transcript of the call provided to jurors, “and it took them a couple of days before they came and got me. I've took plenty of showers. I took a shower every day, and the presidue or residue only stays…on you for 24 hours.”

But it was his lawyer's questioning of former Auburndale Police Detective Kristi Allaire that brought Warner to tears Tuesday. Bartow lawyer Robert Norgard mentioned that Warner's grandfather, with whom he had been talking in the phone call, had died about two weeks before the trial began March 2.

Warner, who could face the death penalty if he's convicted of first-degree murder, removed his glasses and wiped his eyes, then folded his tattooed hands in his lap and stared downward.

In his questions to Allaire, Norgard pressed her on the issue of gunshot residue.

“Just so we're 100% clear,” he said, “there was no gunshot residue test done on Mr. Warner, just as he told his grandfather when his grandfather was pressing him about that.”

“Right,” she said.

Warner, 30, of Auburndale is accused of fatally shooting Adam Hilarie during a predawn home-invasion robbery on Aug. 17, 2016. He's the first of four co-defendants to stand trial for Hilarie's death, and the only one facing the death penalty if he's convicted. Prosecutors have accused Warner of being the gunman.

Hilarie, 27, a single father, was killed the same night he went on a bowling date with Hailey Bustos, 21, whom he'd met through the dating website plentyoffish.com. It was their first date, and Bustos later told detectives she had signed up a couple of weeks earlier after a friend told her she'd gotten money from men she'd met that way.

After Hilarie dropped her off, Bustos met up with Warner, Josh Ellington and Gary Gray, and she returned to Hilarie's Auburndale apartment to rob him, according to prosecutors.

Bustos and Ellington remained in the car while Warner and Gray forced their way inside Hilarie's apartment. They ordered him to his knees, prosecutors said, and Warner fired a single shot into the back of his head. He died instantly, according to an autopsy.

The assailants grabbed televisions, an Xbox One gaming system, jewelry, some cash, three bottles of liquor and some Hilarie's ball caps before leaving, according to Auburndale police reports.

In an interview with detectives, Bustos said Gray and Warner had laughed that Hilarie had begged for his life for the sake of his 5-year-old daughter.

Norgard and Assistant State Attorney Kristie Ducharme are expected to present their closing arguments in the trial Wednesday, and the jury will begin deliberations.

The state on Friday suspended jury trials for the next two weeks because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but judges were given the option of continuing trials that already had begun. Circuit Judge Jalal Harb decided to move forward.

If the jury finds Warner guilty of first degree murder, the 12 jurors will move into the trial's penalty phase, in which they'll hear additional testimony and deliberate to recommend whether he should receive mandatory life in prison or the death penalty. The final decision will rest with Harb.

Warner also is charged with robbery with a firearm, armed burglary and conspiracy to commit armed robbery.

He has been held in the Polk County Jail without bail since his arrest in August 2016.

Suzie Schottelkotte can be reached at suzie.schottelkotte@theledger.com or 863-533-9070. Follow her on Twitter @southpolkscene.