BIDDEFORD — The girl had only been away from home for about 30 minutes, playing with a friend down the street, when she came back and saw a police officer putting up crime scene tape at the end of the driveway to her mother’s apartment on State Street.

This is where police say Ahmed Sharif, 27, was shot and killed on Nov. 24, 2023.

On Thursday, the girl appeared in York County Superior Court to testify in the murder trial of her older brother, Lorenze Labonte, who prosecutors accuse of killing Sharif.

Prosecutors have suggested that Labonte believed Sharif had given a friend’s sister drugs that she overdosed on. A man who is friends with Labonte told police Labonte was concerned Sharif would do the same with Labonte’s 18-year-old sister, Ariana Tito.

Prosecutors say Labonte, 27, shot Sharif after telling his youngest sister, then 10 years old, to leave the Biddeford apartment. Days after the shooting, the girl told police that Labonte knocked on a bedroom window to get her attention while she was watching TV with her older sister, whom Sharif was staying with. Once inside, Labonte poured her juice and gave her cash.

“Because he promised me he would give me money on Thanksgiving but I never got it,” she testified. “So I asked him for my money the next day.”

The girl, now 12, testified Thursday that she doesn’t remember whether Labonte was there or what he said. But she said she did remember her interviews with police, and she told the jury that what she said then was the truth.

Her account is a key piece of the state’s case against Labonte, along with two men who said they drove Labonte to New Bedford, Massachusetts, after the shooting. While none of these witnesses saw the shooting, prosecutors say they clearly place Labonte at the crime scene.

Donald Mitchell and Zachary Jewett were already out running errands the morning of Nov. 24, 2023, when Mitchell said Labonte called and asked if they could drive him to his family’s apartment in Biddeford for a “family emergency.”

Jewett and Mitchell picked Labonte up on Temple Street in Saco, were Labonte was living, and drove him about a mile to his mother’s apartment on State Street in Biddeford. The two men stayed in the driveway as Labonte tried opening the house’s side door, then walked around to the other side of the house, Jewett testified.

Minutes later, Labonte returned and said they needed to leave immediately.

“’You’re going to bring me to New Bedford,'” Mitchell recalled Labonte saying. “‘I’ll pay you to bring me to New Bedford.'”

Mitchell said Labonte made a few calls during their trip, including one in which Labonte said “I hit him with a 45.” Mitchell said police never told him what kind of gun was used, but prosecutors said Wednesday that they believe from shell casings it was a .45 caliber.

Jewett recalled Labonte throwing a sweater out the car window at one point.

They both testified that Labonte told them not to tell anyone they picked him up and to tell anyone who asked that they had given a short ride to an unknown Somali man.

Labonte’s attorney, Verne Paradie, cast doubt on whether the two men were reliable witnesses. Both testified to having criminal histories, and at the time of the shooting, Mitchell said he was sick from being in withdrawal.

The men also shared inconsistent accounts Wednesday — Mitchell remembered a third person in the car with them when they picked up Labonte, but Jewett said they had dropped that person off before picking up Labonte.

Mitchell remembered Labonte wearing a mask the whole ride, while Jewett said Labonte put those on at some point during the ride. Jewett recalled nothing unusual about Labonte when they picked him up.

Paradie also argued the men’s statements now are different from what they first told police in the days after the shooting. Mitchell said he didn’t feel safe coming forward until after Labonte was arrested on Nov. 27 because he said he was afraid of Labonte and the people that Labonte was “associated with.”

After Superior Court Justice James Martemucci excused the jury from the room, Mitchell told the court he was afraid of Labonte because he believed the man was part of a gang. Martemucci barred both Mitchell and Jewett from mentioning gangs in front of the jury.

But before letting jurors back in, Martemucci told Labonte that he would remove him from the courtroom if he kept making “intimidating gestures” to Mitchell.

“I very much appreciate and understand this is a murder trial,” Martemucci said, “and I can only assume you’ve got lots of emotion and thoughts going through your head. … You need to try very hard to check yourself today.”

Prosecutors have suggested that Labonte believed Sharif had given a friend’s sister drugs that she overdosed on. A man who is friends with Labonte told police Labonte was concerned Sharif would do the same with Labonte’s 18-year-old sister, Ariana Tito.