Just looking at Torie Cross, you wouldn’t know he was shot in the face two years ago.
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Cross took the stand Wednesday to testify about the deadly shooting at Band House along Northwest 62nd Street on Jan. 29, 2024, in Fort Lauderdale that was caught on surveillance video.
His friend, Marcel Noel, 30, was shot to death right in front of him.
Then the gunman, Jorge Varona Suarez, 38, fired at Cross, hitting him in the arm. The bullet traveled through his chest and landed next to his heart.
“One centimeter to the left, I would’ve been dead, one centimeter to the right, I would’ve been paralyzed,” Cross said from the witness stand.
Cross testified that Varona then stood over him and shot him a second time.
“Then I felt a presence stood over me. He shot me, a face shot, and when he shot me, the bullet missed my head but went through; it split my lip and knocked my tooth out,” Cross said. “And the lip produced so much blood he thought he had a head shot, and I played dead, and I just laid there.”
Varona is on trial for murder and attempted murder. He is claiming self-defense.
When defense attorneys questioned Cross, things got heated in the courtroom. They alleged Cross mouthed a message to Varona across the room during a break in his testimony.
“You were mouthing things to him, correct?” asked defense attorney Emma Wilkes asked.
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“I said one thing. You want to know what I said?” Cross said. “I said, ‘I’ll see you next lifetime.’ I said, ‘I will see you next lifetime.’”
“And you told him, ‘I’m going to kill you?” Wilkes asked.
“’I will see you next’ – stop it – ‘I’ll see you next lifetime.’ That’s what I said,” Cross insisted.
Defense attorneys claim Varona came into contact with Noel that night at the club because Noel was arguing with another patron. They say he fired his gun to protect others.
But Cross told jurors there was no threat.
“Did you threaten him (Varona) in any way?” Assistant State Prosecutor Tonya Johnson asked.
“No,” Cross replied.
“Did the victim threaten him in any way?” Johnson asked.
“No,” Cross replied.
Varona is expected to testify in his own defense during trial. If convicted on the murder charge, he could face life in prison.
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