By Nancy Dillon. Back on the witness stand today, Ephron said he had a chance to review his Instagram archive over the weekend and determined that the video was in fact from the Los Angeles Gun Club. During contentious cross-examination, defense lawyer Joe Tacopina grilled Ephron over what caused him to go back and review his archive and then call prosecutors Sunday afternoon to let them know it was a Los Angeles gun club.
Under questioning by deputy district attorney Paul Przelomiec, Ephron told jurors today that he absolutely did not fabricate or plant any evidence in the case. He said that for two years after the alleged shooting, he consistently told police he believed Mayers had fired three or four times. He only found two, he testified.
Mayers, 36, has pleaded not guilty. He claims he was carrying the starter pistol on the advice of security experts after he was the victim of a stalker and a home invasion. Mayers is adamant he never fired any live bullets. If convicted as charged, Mayers is facing up to 24 years in prison, prosecutors have said. Surveillance video at the center of the trial was first shown in court in November The blurry, black and white video of the alleged shooting has no visible muzzle flash and had no sound when it was recorded near the corner of Selma Avenue and Vista Del Mar Avenue in Hollywood.
When the compilation was played again during opening statements, footage of the alleged shooting was synchronized with the sound of two loud cracking noises captured as the audio to a different video from around the corner.
Przelomiec told jurors during opening statements that they were able to marry the sound from one video to the other because a security floodlight triggered during the incident and was visible in both. Over his four days of testimony, Ephron said he and Mayers met in high school and were friends for more than a decade before they had a series of disagreements that strained their relationship leading up to the alleged shooting.
