FULTON COUNTY, GA — Jurors in Fulton County are set to hear closing arguments Thursday in the trial of an alleged gang member accused of murdering 8-year-old Secoriea Turner outside a burned-out Wendy’s five years ago.

Defendant Julian Conley faces murder charges in the July 2020 shooting that claimed Turner’s life as she rode in a Jeep near a protest site on University Avenue. Demonstrators had gathered at the location following the police killing of Rayshard Brooks.

Conley’s defense attorneys called a single witness, an Atlanta woman who testified she was also armed during the protest. She told jurors she saw two men dressed in black open fire on the SUV carrying Turner, not Conley, who she said was wearing a bright red shirt.

“We were down there protesting for Black people, saying our lives matter and a Black child’s life was taken and that was not supposed to happen,” the witness testified, adding, “I’m so, so sorry for her loss. That was not what we were out there for.”

Prosecutors also noted that Turner’s mother described seeing men in black firing at the vehicle, but emphasized Conley was positioned at the first blockade, not the second.

One other defendant in the case previously accepted a plea deal, receiving a 40-year sentence with 20 years to serve.

The case will soon be in the hands of the jury following Thursday’s closing arguments.