Caught on camera: Does video pin murder on 2 suspects?

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A robbery and murder were caught on camera in a Fresno liquor store last August and now, two men will stand trial in the case.

Prosecutors say the men in the surveillance video are Christopher Roberts and Dwayne Dodson. They're charged with killing store clerk Kashmir Manes.

The video clearly shows two men robbing the store and killing one of two men working there. But both suspects wore disguises and defense attorneys say police got the wrong guys.

The violence in this surveillance video is obvious. Two men burst into the Super-1 liquor store in Southeast Fresno last August.

One of them held a gun to the clerk behind the counter and eventually pulled the trigger, killing Kashmir Manes.

Police caught Christopher Roberts a little while after and later arrested Dwayne Dodson. But their attorneys say the somewhat grainy video doesn't pin the crime on their clients.

"It could be anybody," said Ralph Torres, who is representing Dodson. "They don't have Dwayne Dodson. They don't have enough on him."

But prosecutors point to video taken about 45 minutes earlier at a nearby convenience store. It shows Roberts and Dodson without any disguises and police believe it links the men to the liquor store shooting.

"Mr. Dodson is wearing the same clothes he wore in the robbery," said prosecutor Jeff Dupras.

Dupras also showed video from a convenience store robbery in 2007. Roberts confessed to being the person using a t-shirt as a mask during this crime and Dupras says he used the same trick in the deadly robbery attempt five years later.

"I can think of few things more distinctive than that shirt pulled up over the top of his head and tied in the back," he said.

Roberts is wearing different clothing in video taken two hours before the shooting, when he got gas from the store that turned into a crime scene. But police say his shoes -- a pair of Michael Jordans -- are the telltale evidence to prove his guilt.

The judge actually had to take a second look at the videos before he decided there is enough evidence to put Roberts and Dodson on trial. They're due back in court later this month, and both men could face the death penalty at trial.

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