She began to describe her relationship with Lake but then requested a break after Assistant District Attorney Kevin Gray began asking her about the moments leading up to Lake’s shooting.

Shannon Kepler appeared to have tears in his eyes when his daughter was on the witness stand, and he was comforted by one of his attorneys.

Lisa Kepler returned to the stand about an hour later but again left in tears a few minutes into her second round of testimony. However, she told the jury she had met Lake at the Day Center for the Homeless after her parents kicked her out of their house and dropped her off there.

Lake, Lisa Kepler said, was “a very helpful person” who socialized with people at the shelter and helped them when he could. He took her to his aunt’s home, in the 200 block of North Maybelle Avenue, to live, but she said he did not introduce her to his aunt until after she had spent a couple of nights at the residence.

Lisa Kepler said that on the day of the shooting, “we had gone under the bridge (near Lake’s home) to see if the (homeless) people under the bridge needed anything.” When they returned to the home, she said, she saw the Kepler family’s black Chevrolet Suburban sitting at the end of the street.