Assistant District Attorney Rick Sitzman said Morphew’s story changed as detectives questioned his version of events. “Finally,” several days after Baker’s death and after his arrest, Morphew confessed to Norman Police Det. Steve Lucas that he was the one who shot Baker, Sitzman said.

Morphew told Lucas he turned around while saying to Baker, “Now who’s got the gun,” and pulled the trigger, Sitzman said.

Morphew’s defense attorney, Jim Rowan, described the situation differently, saying Morphew came out of the bathroom while continuing a discussion with Baker about a TV show they were watching.

He said Baker pulled the gun out and began spinning its cylinder — “essentially playing with it.”

“Kris told Adam, ‘Give me the gun’ and Adam tossed it to him,” Rowan said.

As Morphew was walking toward a mantel on which he planned to place the gun, Baker made a comment to Morphew concerning the TV program, Rowan said. Morphew turned around with his finger on its trigger. The gun went off, and Morphew fell to the floor.

“It was deafening. It scared the hell out of him. He said, ‘Oh my God, we’re in trouble now.’ Then he saw the large wound in Adam’s head,” Rowan said.

Rowan said Morphew “walked over to his best friend and dropped the gun” and then ran outside screaming. “Kristopher told his neighbor, ‘My best friend shot himself.’

“Why? I don’t know. I wasn’t there to advise him. Decide for yourself what was going through his mind,” Rowan said.

Rowan told the jurors there was “no malice aforethought” on Morphew’s part.

“Ask yourselves, at the end of the trial, what was in Kristopher Morphew’s mind at the moment the gun discharged.

“That is the essence of this case,” Rowan said.

The trial resumes at 8:30 a.m. today.

Rape trial opens

Also Tuesday, testimony began in the first-degree rape trial of Kendall Dewayne Carr, 36, of Oklahoma City.