Three Virginia Tech football players came within a few feet of being hit by bullets fired into an apartment in the predawn hours of a Sunday in November, one of them testified yesterday.

"I was scared out of my life," senior cornerback Victor "Macho" Harris said while recounting those moments during the jury trial of a man accused of shooting into his Blacksburg apartment.

Harris, a graduate of Highland Springs High School, is one of Tech's star players.

The defendant, Anthony Jobair Lucas, 23, is charged with discharging a firearm within or at an occupied dwelling, a felony.

Nathaniel Walker, an assistant commonwealth's attorney in Montgomery County, wound up the prosecution's case yesterday in Montgomery Circuit Court. Defense attorney Brad McConnell is expected to give his closing argument when the trial resumes today at 9 a.m.

Augustus Pajibo Peal, 23, will face the same charge as Lucas on Sept. 29

Peal testified yesterday that Lucas fired a 9 mm pistol, owned by Peal, at Harris' apartment from the back of a Mazda four-door sedan while Peal sat in the driver's seat. Lucas did not testify.

Peal said his roommate, Seth Lederman, fired a shotgun from the passenger seat at Harris' apartment. Lederman has not been charged in the case and did not testify.

Harris said he was sitting in his living room watching television around 3:45 a.m. on Nov. 11 when bullets crashed through a sliding-glass door that led to his balcony. He estimated the shots came within 5 feet of hitting him.

Wide receiver Justin Harper and linebacker Xavier Adibi, both seniors last year, also were in the apartment. Adibi was sitting on a couch, and bullets whizzed over his head and into a wall directly behind the couch, Harris said. Police said they found seven 9 mm shell casings in the parking lot next to Harris' third-floor apartment.

Harris said he ran for cover into another room. He testified that he does not know Lucas or Peal. Harris, 22, had not publicly discussed the incident before yesterday.

Peal testified that the shooting stemmed from Lucas getting into a physical altercation earlier in the evening with Harper at a Blacksburg nightclub, where the two men had previously fought. Peal and Lucas, who were in the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity at Tech, were at the club with friends.

After the club closed, Lucas went to a friend's apartment but spoke to Peal around 3 a.m. on the phone. Lucas asked Peal if he still had a gun and said he wanted a ride to Harris' apartment, where he hoped to find Harper, Peal testified.

McConnell questioned Peal's credibility, noting that Peal has other felony charges pending besides the one connected with shooting at Harris' apartment. When Peal returns to Montgomery Circuit Court on Sept. 29, he will face 10 charges of grand larceny, three of statutory burglary and one of credit-card theft.

McConnell asked Peal whether the prosecutor had offered Peal a deal involving leniency on those charged in exchange for his testimony.

"No, sir, he has not," Peal said.
Contact Darryl Slater at (804) 649-6026 or dslayter@timesdispatch.com.