For the second time in eight months, Sergio Berben sat on a witness stand staring at a man he said was responsible for the murder of his girlfriend.
“Andrea was the person I planned to spend the rest of my life with,” Berben, 22, told jurors Tuesday, before pointing directly at Adrian Cosby, the man prosecutors say fired the fatal shot. “That’s the guy that flipped our world completely upside down.”
In February, Berben’s testimony helped seal the fate of George Oshane Walton, 24. After a two-week trial, jurors determined that though Walton never fired a weapon, he took part in a crime that led to the shooting death of high school senior Andrea Camps-Lacayo. He was convicted of first-degree murder, first-degree attempted murder and attempted armed robbery with a firearm and sentenced to life in prison.
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Tuesday morning, the trial of Walton’s friend Adrian Cosby began with opening statements and Berben’s testimony. Like Walton, Cosby, 23, is facing charges of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and attempted robbery with a firearm.
Opening statements from both sides were brief, but pointed. Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Khalil Quinan told jurors Walton was the bagman and Cosby the shooter and promised jurors they would see time-stamped surveillance video of the two men leading to Camps-Lacayo’s shooting death.
“One robbery. One gun. One bullet took a life,” Quinan said. “Adrian Cosby shot her and killed her in a botched armed robbery.”
Cosby’s defense attorney Dustin Tischler said his client was simply out for an evening stroll in his slippers when Camps-Lacayo was killed. He also said the shooting happened so quickly that Berben was likely confused and that prosecutors believe the wrong man pulled the trigger.
“Walton committed this crime,” said Tischler. His client was only “guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Botched robbery costs a life
Camps-Lacayo, an 18-year-old senior at the prestigious Terra Environmental Research Institute in West Kendall, lost her life in a botched armed robbery in a Homestead subdivision in April 2020 over three pair of rare and expensive sneakers attached to major name brands. And she wasn’t even supposed to be there.
On Tuesday, Berben repeated what he told attorneys and jurors in February: As a part-time gig to make money, he became a sneaker head in middle school and had spent years selling expensive Black Market shoes through an Instagram account.
On the day his girlfriend was killed, a friend had connected him with a man named Eric Readon, who set up the deal to purchase three pair of Yeezy Sneakers, a joint venture between rap superstar Kanye West and Adidas.
Though the shoes sold for $220 in the store, the specialty sneakers were so hard to come by, they agreed on a sale price of $935 for the three pair. Berben said it was only bad luck that he was having breakfast with Camps-Lacayo when Readon called and instructed him to the address in Homestead.
Once the couple entered the gated community in Berben’s white Jeep Wrangler, he was instructed to park in front of an abandoned home. That’s when Walton showed up and the two began chatting. Berben said he was holding one pair of the shoes, his girlfriend the other two.
Berben told jurors Walton never displayed a weapon or tried to steal the shoes. As they were talking, Berben said, he noticed, through his side-view mirror, that Cosby was making his way toward the Jeep from behind. As Cosby got next to Walton, he opened fire, striking Camps-Lacayo in the stomach and Berben in the left arm. Berben said Cosby never said a word.
“He just shot without a care in the world,” Berben said.
Bleeding, Berben said he floored the Jeep and called 911 from outside the complex. Then, for the second time since February, jurors and Camps-Lacayo’s friends and family listened to the gut-wrenching 911 call. Berben struggled with the operator who asked him repeatedly about the shooters, until he eventually he pulled over on the side of Southwest 112th Avenue just before the exit south to Florida’s Turnpike.
As the operator urged him to put pressure on his girlfriend’s gunshot wound with a towel, Berben told her Camps-Lacayo threw up and lost consciousness.
“She’s not awake anymore,” he says.
“She’s not responding anymore?” asks the operator.
“No,” said Berben.
The trial is expected to last at least through the end of the week. Cosby is not expected to testify.
