Model cries, talks of slaying friend

RAYMOND ARMSTRONG, the model on trial for allegedly strangling a longtime friend in the man's Grays Ferry home in September 2008, at first fought back tears and then burst out sobbing Thursday while pleading his innocence on the witness stand.

Armstrong, 35, who has modeled for Target and Kenneth Cole, told the Common Pleas jury that while dozing in a second-floor bedroom after becoming ill, he awoke after realizing he was being sexually assaulted by the homeowner, Anthony Williams.

"I felt, like, Tony's face on the back of my thighs and my behind," Armstrong said haltingly.

He tried to get up from the bed but Williams, 37, pushed him back down, said Armstrong, who told the jury he believed two energy drinks that he'd had earlier may have weakened him.

"We're all adults here," Armstrong said to the jury of six women and six men. "If you are behind somebody, as a man, you are trying to position yourself. I could feel his penis in my butt cheeks."

He then knocked Williams off and got out of the room after a brief struggle, but Williams followed him, Armstrong said.

The fight continued in the bathroom, where he tried to stop Williams from licking his face and choking him, the defendant said. "It was like he was going to kill me in the bathroom. He was going to choke me out," bawled Armstrong, adding that he managed to fight his way to the top of the stairs.

Armstrong said that when Williams grabbed him around the neck from behind, he managed to reach back and grab the back of his attacker's tank top. His wrist got tangled in Williams' shirt, Armstrong said, and when he pulled his arm forward he and Williams started tumbling down the steps with Williams flying over his head.

Williams' body was found at the bottom of the stairs. He died of strangulation, the Medical Examiner's Office ruled.

Armstrong said he never intended for Williams to die, having known him since the early 2000s. "I believe that if Tony didn't have on that shirt, I'm not going to be here, OK? I didn't want anything bad to happen to Tony ... I was just trying to get Tony off of me."

Assistant District Attorney Mark Levenberg told the jury Wednesday that Armstrong strangled Williams with some type of ligature and that he is guilty of first-degree murder.

Defense attorney Todd Edward Henry said Armstrong is not guilty and suggested that he had acted in self-defense.