A defense attorney for a Vancouver man accused of killing a clerk at Sifton Market and setting fire to the building in January 2017 argues that a drug dealer called “Zip” is responsible for the crime.

Defense attorney John Terry told jurors Tuesday that the slaying was not carried out by Mitchell Heng — seen in store surveillance footage at the time of the Jan. 15 killing — but rather the unseen methamphetamine dealer.

Heng, 24, is on trial in Clark County Superior Court for first-degree murder, first-degree robbery and first-degree arson in the death of 47-year-old Amy Marie Hooser.

During opening statements Tuesday morning, Terry said much of the state’s evidence will not be contested, but he said it won’t give the full picture of what happened that morning.

His narrative that followed elicited audible tsk-tsks and a laugh of disbelief from Hooser’s family and supporters seated in the gallery.