<p>An hour after a mugger fatally shot a 19-year-old debutante Christmas Eve, an eyewitness told police he was "almost positive" one of the attackers was white in a taped interview heard Friday by jurors and the three black defendants charged with her murder.</p><p>Testimony in the second day of trial in the slaying of Jennifer Ross focused on the racial description that her friend, Brannen Miles, gave police of one of the suspects. Prosecutors say three black men committed the crime with a fourth accomplice, who is also black.</p><p>Meanwhile, a friend of the defendants testified Friday that he heard the three men boast that they had committed the shooting.</p><p>Ross was shot while walking with three friends Dec. 24 shortly after 3 a.m., hours after she had been presented as a debutante at Savannah's Christmas Cotillion. She died a week later on New Year's Day at the hospital where her father is a top executive.</p><p>Miles, a friend of Ross' since childhood, testified Friday that he didn't see Ross get shot. He said he and another witness, Lizzy Sprague, ran when they saw a man jump from behind a tree and strike friend Brett Finley over the head with a gun.</p><p>"I'm almost positive it was a white guy," Miles told police in an interview recorded an hour later. "A goatee and sideburns, that's what I remember seeing. And it was blonde."</p><p>Miles also said he thought he saw the same white man get into a gray Ford Taurus to flee. That's a key detail to prosecutors, who say they can connect a stolen gray Taurus to the black defendants.</p><p>On the witness stand, Miles said he's no longer sure if the man he saw attack Finley was white or black, though he described a white assailant to investigators in at least three police interviews.</p><p>"I gave the description of a white man with facial hair," Miles testified. "I think I was just in shock. I really have no reason why that picture came up in my head."</p><p>But Miles said he was positive of the make and model of the Taurus, even noting it had a honeycomb grill between the headlights. He described himself as an automobile enthusiast who subscribes to three different car magazines.</p><p>Savannah police Officer Michael Drayton, who interviewed Miles at the scene, testified Miles told him that he thought two of the attackers were white.</p><p>"He seemed pretty much adamant that it was two white males and one black male," said Drayton, who interviewed Sprague at the same time. "She pretty much nodded as if she was in agreement with him."</p><p>Defense attorneys for the three black defendants say police rushed to make arrests following a massive outcry in Savannah over the slaying of the young, white woman from a prominent family.</p><p>Michael Thorpe, 26, is accused of shooting Ross in the back after she refused to give him her purse and tried to run. Prosecutors say Webster Wilson, 25, ambushed Finley and pistol-whipped him. Kevin Huckabee, 21, is accused of driving the gray Taurus. All are charged with murder for their role in what prosecutors say was a botched robbery.</p><p>Jonathan Tolbert, a friend of the three defendants, testified he helped Huckabee steal the Taurus from a local car dealer where Tolbert worked washing and detailing cars. Tolbert said he stole a key to the gray car and gave it to Huckabee before the shooting last December.</p><p>After Ross was shot on Christmas Eve, Tolbert said he overheard Thorpe, Wilson and Huckabee bragging that they had committed the mugging.</p><p>"They said Mike shot the girl and Web had hit the boy with the gun," Tolbert said, referring to Thorpe and Wilson. "They were all talking about it."</p><p>Thorpe's attorney, Richard Darden, pressed Tolbert on why he was so eager to cooperate with police. Tolbert said he's being held at the Chatham County jail facing unrelated gun charges, though he has not been charged in the theft of the Taurus. He also said police threatened to charge him in Ross' slaying if he did not cooperate.</p><p>"They said they would charge me with murder," Tolbert said.</p><p>Meanwhile, court officials said inmates at the Chatham County Jail had been watching coverage of the trial on Court TV, causing potential complications for witnesses also being housed in the jail.</p><p>"The general word has gotten around (among inmates) that anybody who testifies is going to be facing problems or threats," chief assistant district attorney David Lock said in court.</p><p>The trial recessed for nearly 90 minutes while Superior Court Judge Penny Haas Freesemann called the cable company to cut off the jail's access to Court TV. Testimony resumed after the cable channel had been scrambled at the jail.</p>
