Photo by Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times

James Reginald Jones II is on trial on capital murder charges in the shooting death of Ken Henry on July 5, 2006. Capital murder is punishable only by life in prison or the death penalty.

RADFORD -- The key witness in the capital murder case against James Reginald Jones II testified against him Wednesday, saying that she and Jones together planned to rob Ken Henry but that it was Jones who fatally shot him.

Kelly McKenzie Brubeck, who went by the name Kelly Lance until she went through a divorce, was originally charged with killing Henry at her Davis Street apartment the evening of July 5, 2006. Brubeck, 24, had told police she killed Henry after he tried to rob her.

She changed her story days later, though, saying she had lied at first because she loved Jones, who was her fiance.

Wednesday was the first day of testimony in the case, which is scheduled to last at least two weeks in Radford Circuit Court.

Only two witnesses testified. The first was Earlie Mae Henry, Ken Henry's mother from Union City, Tenn. Earlie Mae Henry was bubbly and laughed as she showed the court photos of her son from childhood through adulthood. Her disposition turned somber as she identified a photo of the 39-year-old's grave site.

Brubeck was on the stand for two hours, but her part in the case isn't over. She will be cross-examined today by Jimmy Turk, one of Jones' defense attorneys.

Turk smiled, took notes and shared excited-looking glances with other defense attorneys as he listened to Brubeck, who answered many of Radford Commonwealth's Attorney Chris Rehak's questions by saying, "I'm not really for sure."

Brubeck said she couldn't remember what she had said when she called 911 half an hour after Ken Henry was shot twice, once in the shoulder and once in the neck. Rehak played the 911 tape, in which Brubeck can be heard saying that someone pointed a gun at her and she shot him.

When he asked her what she told police, she said, "I'm sure I told them the same thing I told 911 ... That was the plan."

Asked to describe what happened the night Henry was killed, Brubeck said she and Jones contacted him to ask him to bring an ounce of crack to the apartment she shared with Jones, her boyfriend of about six months. They planned to rob Henry when he got there, she said.

When Henry arrived, she said, she took him to the kitchen. Jones came out of the laundry room and, she said, "he's got a gun, asks Ken for the dope, of course. He shot Ken."

Henry begged for his life, she said. Jones told her to get the money out of Henry's pockets but Henry handed over a wad of cash, she said. Jones then shot Henry a second time with the two-shot derringer, she said. Henry got up and staggered out the apartment's front door. Brubeck said she then ran out the back door to a neighbor's.

In his opening statement, Turk said it's key to the case that Brubeck at first thought Henry was still alive. Why would she have lied to police, he asked, when she thought Henry would be telling them what happened? It was only after she found out Henry was dead that her story changed and she said she didn't shoot him, Turk said.

"This case is all about who did it," Rehak said in his opening statement.

He told the jury of nine women and four men, including an alternate, that Brubeck lied at first "in an effort, twisted though it may be, to ensure that they would have a life together.

"Love makes people do crazy things," he said.

Rehak told jurors they will hear evidence that Jones bragged about the killing, a statement that made Jones shake his head from side to side.

One of the potential witnesses in the case is William Gutersloh, who is serving prison time for the 2000 killing of Lori Pleasants. Gutersloh and Jones were held in the New River Valley Regional Jail at the same time.

Turk told jurors they will hear evidence that Brubeck has called herself "a master manipulator of men" and "someone who has court all figured out."

He said that in some taped phone calls she made from jail, she talked about how she planned to manipulate the case.

Brubeck is charged with second-degree murder and other crimes. A trial date for her has not been set.

In addition to capital murder, Jones is charged with four other crimes related to the robbery and killing of Henry. The premeditated killing of someone during a robbery is a capital offense in Virginia. If convicted, capital murder is punishable only by life in prison or the death penalty.