Opening statements began Tuesday in the trial of a man charged in the stabbing death of Florida International University football player Kendall Berry.
Quentin Wyche, 25, is charged with second-degree murder in the March 2010 stabbing death of Berry on FIU's campus. Wyche has pleaded not guilty claiming self-defense.
“Kendall Berry had a future. He had his whole life ahead of him and on March 25, 2010, that future, that life was cut short,” Miami-Dade prosecutor Ray Araujo said.
According to police, the incident began at the school's rec center when Wyche, who was also a FIU student, insulted Berry's girlfriend and threw cookies in her face.
As the two men exchanged words and the argument became physical, Wyche allegedly stabbed Berry with scissors. The 22-year-old Berry was rushed to a nearby hospital where he died. Wyche later turned himself in to police.
“This was a situation from somebody defending themselves from being attacked from one, two, three, possibly more, possibly a dozen people who came there for the specific purpose of confronting him,” defense attorney David Peckins said.
One of the key prosecution witnesses said she saw Wyche getting the scissors, breaking them apart and running toward Berry, the Miami Herald reported.
“Only one of the people there had more than just his fists,” Araujo said.
But Peckins said that Wyche was protecting himself and did not intend to kill.
“Not all killings are criminal in nature. Not all killings are illegal,” Peckins said.
Berry, who was from Haines City in central Florida, was a running back for the Golden Panthers.
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