A man who told police in 2011 that his cousin was at Sunlight Manor on the night of a murder changed his story in state district court Friday.

Tracey Williams said he was scared and high on PCP when he gave his statement after the May 31, 2011, killing of Westlake man Corey Demond Thomas, 32.

Prosecutors allege Tracey Williams was in the green Honda CR-V when his cousin, Ceaser James Williams, first shot Thomas. Ceaser Williams, 26, then chased Thomas and shot him two more times, prosecutors say. A bystander was also shot in the foot.

Ceaser Williams is standing trial on charges of second-degree murder, aggravated battery and aggravated property damage.

Tracey Williams said on the stand Friday that Ceaser Williams was not at Sunlight Manor, north of Broad Street, when he twice went to purchase a drug known as wet from Thomas on May 31.

In 2011, Tracey Williams told Lake Charles Police Department detective Franklin Fondel, “When I went back a second time, Ceaser was there, sir.” However, Tracey Williams told Fondel, “He wasn’t with me. I don’t got nothing to do with this.”

Tracey Williams said Friday that “I just said what I had to say because I was scared and I was ready to go home.”

Prosecutors Tara Hawkins and Lori Nunn allege that Tracey Williams was in the driver’s seat and Ceaser Williams in the passenger seat when Ceaser Williams shot Thomas in the face, the bullet lodging in his jaw.

Defense attorney King Alexander said in his opening statement that Tracey Williams was the actual shooter.

Tracey Williams took the stand late Friday, after testy testimony from another witness, Sheena Leday. Leday said as she turned away from the vehicle, she heard gunshots, but did not see who killed Thomas.

A family member of the Williamses was asked to leave the courtroom after Tracey Williams entered the courtroom. Tracey Williams, who is being held as a material witness in the Calcasieu Correctional Center, first refused to testify Friday.

“No, ma’am,” Tracey Williams said when the deputy clerk asked him if he swore to testify truthfully. “My statement wasn’t true on the video statement.”

Tracey Williams said he did not want “to get on the stand and commit perjury,” because his previous statement was not true.

After some discussion, he agreed to testify truthfully. He was not finished when court broke Friday.

The two Williamses were like brothers, Tracey Williams said.

Thomas and Tracey Williams met three times on May 31 for Thomas to sell Williams wet — cigarettes dipped in PCP — Williams said. At first, Tracey Williams said he met Thomas twice that day, both at Sunlight Manor, but after being shown a transcript of his 2011 statement, he said he also recalled meeting Thomas at a ballfield earlier in the day. The last time he met Thomas, at Sunlight Manor, was at about 10:30 p.m., he said.

Sheena Leday testified that the shooting happened just before dark. Leday is jailed in the Calcasieu Correctional Center as a material witness and was indicted Thursday on a cocaine charge.

She was at the apartment of a man named Damon and had been smoking wet all day on May 31, she said. Thomas came to the apartment at about 4 p.m. to sell them wet and stayed, she said.

When the Williamses came to the apartment complex to buy the drug, they stayed in the vehicle and Thomas went down to meet them, Leday said. Another person may have been in the vehicle as well, “but I don’t know that,” she said.

“Something told me to follow him, so I followed him,” she said.

Thomas got into the backseat of the driver’s side of the CR-V, behind Tracey Williams, she said. When she approached Tracey Williams, who had the door open, to ask him where the clothes he was supposed to bring her were, he told her to get away, she said.

“All I can hear is boom, boom, boom,” Leday said in a taped police interview with Franklin Fondel and Richard Harrell, shown in court. “I don’t know who shot him, but I know he got shot.”

The Williamses were robbing Thomas of his money and drugs, Leday told the detectives. When she talked to Tracey Williams, later that night, he claimed his cousin had done the shooting.

“Either ‘Lil’ C’ (Ceaser Williams) or Tracey shot him. That’s all know,” she said, but said she did not see a gun. Ceaser Williams was greedy for money, she said.

Leday said Tracey Williams put her up in a motel that night because he did not want her to tell what she had seen.

Leday sparred with prosecutors and defense attorneys as they questioned changes in her story. Leday said she, too, was high during her 2011 statement.

Alexander’s request that she be kept under subpoena to return as a potential witness was met with protest from Leday. “She told me I could go home today,” Leday said, referring to Hawkins.

“She’s going to disappear,” Alexander said.

“No, I’m not,” Leday retorted.

Alexander said Leday failed to appear in August.

The slugs found at the scene were fired either from a .357- or .38-caliber weapon, Patrick Lang, a state police ballistics expert, testified. The murder weapon was not recovered.

Ebony Porterfield, Tracey Williams’ girlfriend, testified Thursday that he owned a “western” style gun.(MGNonline)