Brian Starks testified that he was doing a former prison dormitory mate a favor by setting up a large cocaine deal with Starks' friend who is an Oxnard drug dealer named "Chava" who also owns a mechanic shop.

Starks said Chava gave him the gun when he went to do the drug deal with Michael Wade and Darrell Babagay who were going to pay tens of thousands of dollars for the cocaine.

Prosecutor Maeve Fox told jurors that Starks, Terrance Deshun Morrow and Corey Larmar Johnson tried to rob Wade,  Babagay and Kenneth Pecaro who traveled to Oxnard to buy 6.6 pounds of cocaine for $55,500. She said Starks is a small-time drug dealer who didn't have that amount of cocaine.

Starks is accused of striking Wade in the top of his head with the gun butt and fatally shooting the Northern California resident in the back twice with .40 caliber hollow-point bullets on Nov. 9, 2009. Pecaro was wounded in the hand during a struggle with Morrow.

Starks, Morrow and Johnson are on trial for murder during a robbery and conspiracy.

Pecaro, who knew Starks in prison, hooked him up with Wade and Babagy.  Starks recruited Morrow and Johnson who were armed with a gun and rifle, according to court testimony

Starks said Morrow found a residence in the 1400 block of South E. Street where a drug user named Keith Allen lived. Starks said Morrow who was armed didn't know the details of the drug transaction.

"I don't know if Terry Morrow is a drug dealer," Starks testified. "I know he does music."

"You trust him enough to find you a place and you've got three kilos of cocaine and you don't tell him anything?" prosecutor Maeve Fox asked Starks, a former Channel Islands High School graduate.

Starks said Pecaro and Wade were only going to check out the cocaine. The  part of the deal where money exchanges hands was going to be done later, Starks testified. He denied telling Morrow that he shot Wade in the buttocks.

Fox asked what were Morrow and Johnson supposed to do during the drug deal.

"Look tough," Starks replied.

Starks denied striking Wade on top of the head with the butt of his gun. He also denied that the plan was to walk Wade and Pecaro into the South E. Street resident. There an armed Morrow was waiting and Starks would be behind Pecaro and Wade to trap them. Later,  Babagay would be called to bring the cash to buy the drugs.

"You didn't think anybody in that house would call the cops?" Fox asked.

"Somebody did call the cops," Starks replied.

Fox relentlessly questioned Starks about he phone calls he made shortly before and after the shooting of Wade along with asking him about his ties to Oxnard drug dealers, which Starks named.

During hours of testimony, Starks sometimes mocked Fox who would ask questions that were often laced with sarcasm in an attempt to make Starks' answers to jurors sound unbelievable, at times silly.

"Mr. Morrow brought a gun and (puts) it in his backpack. That fact is unknown to you?" Fox said.

"Yes," Starks replied.  

Brian Starks is on the stand and is being grilled by prosecutor Maeve Fox who is questioning about the names, descriptions and addresses of the drug dealers that Starks has done business with in the past.

Fox told Starks that Erik Ek, an employee from her office, was in the courtroom taking notes so they can check out Starks' story.

Starks, who occasionally bickered Fox and sometimes grinned, appeared calm. He said he didn't know a lot of the dealers last names because drug dealers don't check each others IDs.

The questions from Fox began shortly after 11 a.m. and resume at 1:30 p.m.

Fox told jurors that Starks, Terrance Deshun Morrow and Corey Larmar Johnson tried to rob Wade, Kenneth Pecaro and Darrell Babagay who traveled to Oxnard to buy 6.6 pounds of cocaine for $55,500. She said Starks is a small-time drug dealer who didn't have that amount of cocaine.

Earlier, Starks answered questions from his lawyer Gay Zide.

He testified that the victim Michael Wade who had a razor knife threatened to kill him while they were about to do a drug deal.  He said Kenneth Pecaro, who he knew in prison and put together the drug deal for Wade and his friend Darrell Babagay, ran into the house in Oxnard where the deal was going to be done.

Pecaro maintains that Morrow put a gun to his head has he walked into the house. Pecaro grabbed the weapon and a struggle ensued.

Starks said Wade and him ran toward the fence of the residence in the 1400 block of South. E Street in Oxnard. Starks said he fell and Wade reached for something in his pocket and threatened Starks.

'I'll kill you. I'll kill you. He started going crazy. He was waving the razor," Starks testified.

Then Starks said Wade began spinning and "doing the tornado." Starks said Wade was seven to ten inches near Starks' feet, he testified.

Starks said he took out his gun and fired. Wade was shot twice in the back, according to court testimony.

"I shot in front of me. I was just thinking don't shoot your feet off," Starks testified.

Fox went through text messages from several women who Starks had knew. She read a few excerpts from some of the text messages Starks received that included curse words and one telling him that she loved him but was "done" with him.

"Do you consider yourself a player?" Fox asked.

"No, not at all," he replied.

"Women love you because you're very charming, and you have a lot of success with woman, correct?"

"Objection," Gay said.

"Sustained," Judge Charles Campbell responded.

Despite objections by a prosecutor this morning, a defense toxicology expert testified in the murder trial of three defendants - Brian Bilal Starks, Terrance Deshun Morrow and Corey Larmar Johnson.

Toxicologist John Treuting is still on the stand testifying about the possible effects of methamphetamine on a person.

He told jurors that the murder victim, Michael Wade, had a toxic level of methamphetamine in his blood system.

Starks the defendant accused of pulling the trigger and killing Wade is expected to take the stand this afternoon. Starks is saying that he acted in self-defense.

Outside the jurors' presence today and before the trial began, prosecutor Maeve Fox had objected to Treuting taking the stand, saying that the reason Treuting was being put on the stand was to confuse the jury.

But Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell ruled that he would allow jurors to hear Treuting's testimony, saying that Fox can put on a rebuttal witness later to counter any issues she may have with what Treuting tells jurors.

Campbell, however, rejected motions by defense attorneys to dismiss conspiracy and robbery charges against the three defendants who argued that the evidence was very thin that this was a robbery and the men had conspired to commit it.

The three defendants are on trial in Courtroom 35 for the murder of Wade.

Fox claims that Wade and Kenneth Pecaro were trying to purchase 6.6 pounds of cocaine for $55,500 from Starks. She maintains that Starks was a low-level drug dealer who never had that much cocaine and lured Pecaro and Wade to the 1400 block of South E Street in Oxnard to rob them.

Fox said Starks recruited Morrow and Johnson to help him rob Wade, Pecaro and another drug-dealer Darrell Babagay.

Morrow pulled out a gun and pointed at Pecaro's face, and they were involved in a struggle for the gun. Wade bolted and was shot in the back twice by Starks, according to court testimony. Pecaro was wounded in the hand.

Starks will testify that he fired in self-defense at Wade because Wade came at him with a razor knife. Morrow and Johnson claim they were recruited to provide security during Starks's drug deal with Wade and Babagay, who testimony indicated are high-level drug dealers and gambling buddies.

Pecaro was Starks' prison cellmate and was putting the drug deal together. Morrow will claim that Pecaro startled him as he entered the residence in Oxnard, and he pulled out a gun at Pecaro.

Citing the law during her objection to Treuting's testimony, Fox said an expert's purpose is to help jurors understand a "subject matter" that is not understood by them.

Defense lawyers argued that Treuting was there to tell jurors what the possible effects would be on a person who has a high-level of methamphetamine in his blood.

Testimony in the trial indicated that Michael Wade had 256 nanograms of methamphetamine per milliliters of blood in his system. The therapeutic level for legitimate medicinal purposes such as narcolepsy and hungry suppression is between 20-80 nanograms per milliliters.

Fox told the judge that she is concerned that Treuting is going to say that Wade could be portrayed as psychotic, aggressive or violent. Defense lawyers countered by saying that the expert isn't going to pin down Wade's thought process or draw a conclusion about what Wade was experiencing while on methamphetamine

Defense lawyers told the judge that the measurement of methamphetamine in the blood is the same as blood-alcohol levels in that it effects the central nervous system, conceding that neither methamphetamine nor alcohol in the blood can't be used to assign what it will do in a person who is under the influence.

This is because people have different tolerance levels to drugs and how they act mentally or physically while under the influence can't be predicted without observing them including Wade, according to Treuting's testimony.

"I was not there. I did not observe him," Treuting told jurors. "It varies from individual to individual."

However, Treuting repeated on the stand that methamphetamine is effects the central nervous system.