Injured brothers testify at Mavs ManiAAC capital murder trial

A capital murder trial started Monday for a former Mavs ManiAAC dancer accused of murdering four people.

Police say in August 2013, Erbie Bowser shot eight people, some of them children, during back-to-back shootings in Dallas and DeSoto.

Prosecutors say Bowser shot and killed his girlfriend Toya Smith, 43, and her daughter Tasmia Allen, 17. They say he also shot and wounded her teenage son and her daughter’s friend who happened to be at the house.

Police say just 15 minutes later Bowser showed up the home of his estranged wife -- Zena Bowser -- shooting her and her 3 children. Zena and her adult daughter Neiman Williams were killed.

Zena's two teenage sons who survived testified they hid in a closet when bowser broke into their DeSoto home with a hand grenade. Their sister had been hiding in the closet with them.

“I remember him shooting her and him coming back to the closet and saying get up and listen and come on and he shoots me and my brother,” said Myles White.

Prosecutors showed grisly photos, too graphic for broadcast, of one of the crime scenes.

“I got shot in my right shoulder or chest but it went through my entire right side, down and across and nicked my spine so I got a spinal cord injury from that,” said Christopher White.

Lurlean Smith testified she found her daughter Toya and granddaughter Tasmia Allen shot to death that night after a phone conversation that came to an awkward end. She told the jury she went to check on her daughter and recalls running out of the house saying, "Somebody help me! Oh lord, he's killed them."

Defense attorneys say Bowser is not guilty by reason of insanity, blaming military service and football concussions. They pointed out to the jury several prescription medications bowser was prescribed by the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Dallas.